FATAL ATTRACTION
by Kathy Brown <KathyBrown91@home.com>

Season 6, Episode 7

Air Date: April 11, 1999


(Feedback welcome and appreciated.)
__________________

FATAL ATTRACTION


"Yes, mother .... No, mother .... Uh huh ... Well, I think-- ... Yes, but--
... But I-- ..."

Lois Lane cradled the phone to her ear as she paced in her living room.
Every few moments, she raised her eyes hopefully up the stairs towards the
bedrooms, straining to hear if there was any noise coming from the nursery.
It had taken Lois 47 minutes (she had counted every single one) to get
Laura to finally stop crying and settle down for her afternoon nap, and
Lois had collapsed on the living room couch afterwards, relishing the peace
and quiet.  But now she almost wished Laura would wake up and give her an
excuse to get off the phone.

"Well, have you *talked* to Daddy about this? ... So then you should-- ....
Yes, mother ... Fine ... OK, that's fine .... No, I don't mind.  I'll talk
to you another time.  Good-bye."

Lois hung up the phone and walked further into the living room.  Picking up
a pillow from the couch, she hugged it tightly to her face ... and screamed.

Clark Kent walked through the dining room door, watching his wife warily.
"Uh oh, what did I miss?"

Lois removed the pillow and scowled.  "My mother drives me CRAZY!"

Clark couldn't help but smile.  "And this is news?"

"Don't push me," Lois warned.   "And where have you been anyway?"

"Uh ... ribbon cutting ceremony at the new Recreation Center on the north
side.  I told you about it."

"A three hour ribbon cutting.  Lovely."   Her voice was sarcastic.

"Well, an hour; then I did some patrolling and came back.  Geez."

"I'm sorry, Clark."  Lois sighed heavily.  "I'm just having a bad day and I
could have used the break, that's all.   Laura has this cold and she can't
breathe very well, which makes her cry ... then the more she cries, the
more stuffed she gets, and the more she can't breathe.  She's in a bad
mood, and now *I'm* in a bad mood.  I feel sorry for her being sick, but
when she's screaming at me for an hour straight ... I just want to
drop-kick her out the back door!"

"Lois!"

Lois rolled her eyes.  "I wouldn't really DO it; I'm just venting.  You've
been gone all day and now you get to hear me vent.  If you can't be home to
help around the house, you can at least be appreciative of what I--"   Lois
stopped abruptly and clamped a hand over her mouth, her eyes huge.
"Ohmigod," she exclaimed in a muffled tone.  "I can't believe I just said
that."  Throwing her arms in the air, Lois looked at Clark pleadingly.   "I
sound just like my mother!!"

Clark raised his hands in a placating motion as he led his wife to the
couch.   "Come on, sit down and rest.   It sounds like you had a bad day
with Laura, and then the phone call with your mother just put you over the
edge."

Lois rested her head on Clark's shoulder, feeling the worst of her bad mood
begin to dissipate.  "I'm sorry, Clark; I didn't mean to harp on you.  I
know how awful that sounded, not trusting where you were.  I do trust you;
it's just that I spent the last fifteen minutes on the phone with my mother and
she makes me so CRAZY."

Clark chuckled.  "You said that already, about the time you were screaming
into the pillow.  What happened this time?"

Lois snorted.  "History repeating itself.  The same old arguments ... I
don't know why I let myself start to believe that they could work things
out.  Oh sure, at first they were on their best behavior, but now that the
'honeymoon' is over, they are falling back into their old patterns.  My dad
is working late again, and my mom is suspicious."

"Suspicious?"

"Daddy was always working late--and he did spend a lot of time in his
office--but there were also times that he said he had to go into work on
the weekends or in the evenings, when what he was really doing was meeting
another woman.  When he'd get home, they'd start fighting almost as soon
as he was in the door, and mother would grill him about where he'd been and
how he wasn't home to help out enough."  Lois wrapped her arms around her
husband.  "So I'm sorry for starting that with you.  I trust you, and know
that you wouldn't be gone if you didn't have to be."

Clark pulled her close.  "And I'm sorry for not getting back sooner.  If I
had thought about it, I might have cut my patrol shorter.  I should have
realized Laura would be tough to deal with when she's sick."

They sat in silence for a few moments, just enjoying the peace and quiet,
when Lois suddenly began to laugh.  "Boy, Mother thought she had it bad
with Daddy working at odd hours.  If she only knew how many times you've
had to fly out in the middle of the night, for calls that only you can
hear.  She'd never believe you weren't sleeping around."

Clark pulled back slightly and lifted Lois's chin with his finger until
their eyes met.   "Lois," he said sincerely, "I would *never* cheat on you."

Lois smiled and placed her mouth over his.  "I know," she murmured.

Clark hugged her tight.  "Mmm, this is nice," he said as they kissed.  "The
baby is asleep.  Is there anything you'd like to ... do?"

Lois lifted her head.  "Actually," she said with a smile, "there's been
something I've been wanting to do all day."

"Oh really?"

"Yeah ...."  Lois sat back on the couch.  "Can you hand me that magazine
over there?  I've been trying to finish this one article all day long, but
I keep getting interrupted!"

Clark laughed.  "That wasn't exactly what I had in mind,"  he told her
honestly.  "But if that's what you really want to do ..."

At her apologetic nod, he sat up and reached for the magazine she'd
indicated.  Choosing one of the other magazines for himself, he leaned back
against Lois, content to sit with her and read quietly.

A few minutes later, however, Clark suddenly stood up with a smile.  "I'll
tell you what, how about I run out to the bakery and pick us up a snack?  I've
been craving banana muffins since I interrupted a robbery at a Kingston
bakery at lunch-time.  I'll try my best to be back before Laura wakes up."

Since Lois was never one to argue with food being brought to her, she waved
him on with a smile and went back to reading her magazine.

Clark hadn't been gone more than twenty minutes when the doorbell rang.
Lois set down her magazine with a sigh.  Long gone were the days when
she could read a magazine from cover to cover!

Looking through the peephole at the delivery person, Lois opened the door
with a surprised smile.  "Flowers!"

"Kent residence?" the bored teenager asked.  "Sign here."

"Thank you very much!" Lois exclaimed, stunned by the large bouquet that
she had just traded the pen for.  'Muffins, my foot!' she laughed as she
closed the door.  She knew where her husband had flown off to in such a
hurry--the flower shop.

Lois placed the beautiful bouquet in water and set the vase on the coffee
table before opening the card.  She smiled as she read it.   The wording
was a bit over-dramatic, even for her husband, but she still appreciated
the sentiment.   Given their recent conversation, it was a very touching
way to show that he thought about her when he had to leave, not any other
woman.

It wasn't long before she heard a familiar swoosh, followed by the whir of
her husband spinning back into his casual clothes.   A few seconds later,
Clark walked in from the kitchen, a bag of pastries in his mouth and a cup of
tea in each hand.  He set a cup down on the coffee table in front of Lois,
then settled himself in next to her.

"They had just made a fresh batch of sourdough-banana scones and they
smelled so good I had to get them instead of the muffins," he said, opening
the bag.   Clark then noticed the flowers.  "Hey, these are new ... we
didn't have these here before I left, did we?"

"Oh, listen to you, Mr. Innocent," she grinned.  Lois kissed her husband
soundly.  "They were delivered just as you left.  Thank you; they're
beautiful."

Clark accepted the kiss, but when they separated, he looked doubtful.
"Lois, I didn't send these flowers.  Are you sure they were meant for us?
Maybe the delivery person got the wrong address."

"He said 'Kent residence' ... and the delivery card had our address ..."
Lois reached for the index card she had tossed on the table.  "See, right
here, it says from Clark-- wait a minute, it doesn't say *from* Clark Kent.
It says--"

"*To* Clark Kent."

Lois and Clark stared at each other, confused.   Lois's expression quickly
turned to shock, however, as she remembered the note that was also included
with the delivery.  As she opened the envelope and held the note for
her husband to read, she saw her husband squirm.  Suddenly, Clark Kent
looked very uncomfortable.


	Darling,

	I long for you every moment that we're apart.  My love for you
	will overcome any obstacle in our path.  I miss feeling your lips
	against mine, and I ache to feel our bodies pressed close once
	again.  Soon, my darling, we will be together for all time.

				Love forever,
						me


*****

ACT ONE

*****

Lex Luthor sat in his study, staring at a computer screen and pecking away
at a keyboard. The more he clicked, the tighter his jaw clenched and the
harder he hit the keys.

His wife, Beth, approached him cautiously.  "Lex, darling, the chef is
getting ready to serve lunch in the dining room ... won't you join me
today?  You've been working with that spreadsheet all morning.  You should
take a break."

Lex just waved her off silently, and continued to study the numbers before him.

Beth hesitated, then tried again.  "You know, I could help you with that.
I'm quite a good typist and I could enter any data you needed me to," she
offered helpfully.   "I could go a lot faster than you can with that two
finger approach, and then we could both have lunch."

Lex turned quickly to offer a biting retort, but stopped himself as he
looked into his wife's earnest expression.  Relaxing slightly, he sat back
in  his chair.   "I never saw a reason to learn to type.  I've always paid
people to do it for me.   I've never regretted it--there were much more
valuable ways I could spend my time--but I do admit there are times when
the skill would come in handy.  Like now, when I no longer have the
finances to employ such a large staff."

Beth pondered this surprising hint of vulnerability from her husband.  "I
know how difficult it has been," she finally responded, "to start from
nothing again.  Five years ago, you were the fourth richest man in the
world--"

"Third richest."

"--then everything was auctioned off.  Still, in the last year since
you've been back in Metropolis, you've done a marvelous job of rebuilding
your empire.  I know you don't have nearly the resources you had before,
but you are still a remarkable businessman, Lex, to have come as far as
you have.  You make it look so easy."

Lex took her hand and kissed it.  "Thank you, my dear.  I only wish that it
were as easy as that, with this bit of bad luck I've been having lately.
True, I have considerable wealth, but I fear I am a bit too leveraged for
my tastes."   After a brief reflective moment, however, Lex smiled
confidently.  "That situation will be remedied very soon, however."

"Leveraged?"  Beth asked slowly, carefully wrapping her mouth around the
unfamiliar word.

Lex simply smiled indulgently.  "Nothing to worry your pretty little head
about, my dear.  Just business talk.  Now, why don't you be a good girl and
go down to the dining room and wait for me there.  I'll finish up here in a
moment, and meet you shortly."

"All right, Lex.  Don't work too hard though ... I want you to eat today.
You have to keep up your strength."

Lex had already turned his back on her, however, and had gone back to
studying the spreadsheet, lost in his own world.

*****

Beth Luthor looked regretfully at her husband before shutting the study door.
"Leverage," she said quietly as she walked down the hall.  "Borrowing money
to make investments or purchases, hoping to sell at a higher price that you
bought for, thereby making a substantial profit."

*****

Lois Lane exited police headquarters and walked down the stone steps to the
sidewalk.  She squinted into the mid-day sun as she waited for her
husband to catch up with her after holding open the door. "What a waste of
a Monday morning," she muttered.  When Clark joined her, she directed her
comments to him.  "People in Metropolis have been turning up dead for
months now, and the police still have no suspects!"

Clark sighed in frustration.  "I know.  I thought by coming down here today
we might be able to get Henderson to spill, but he's not talking."

"How can he not be talking?   Bodies are turning up left and right.  There
might be a serial killer on the loose."

Clark shook his head.  "I don't know, Lois.  Several of the M.O.'s are the
same, but they don't all match up.  And the police can't find any links
between the victims; they just think random violence is on the upturn.  I
studied the files of the early victims a few months ago and nothing struck
me as suspicious.

"Except for that woman who drugged my mother," Lois pointed out.  "She was
an early victim and she was *very* suspicious!"

"I can't argue there, but I couldn't find a connection between her and the
previous victims.  Nothing to prove these killings are all related.
Besides, the police ruled that death a suicide so they don't even include
her in the official body count."

Lois stopped next to their car and unlocked the driver's side door.
"There's something going on here, Clark; I can feel it.  We've been so
distracted lately we haven't had time to look into these most recent
victims.  I think we should do that next."

Clark chuckled as he entered the passenger seat. "You mean you found
fighting for custody of Laura, my mother getting involved with a protest
movement, and having our daughter turned into a teenager overnight
distracting?"  He winked at his wife.  "Gee, we're slipping."

Lois smiled at him from behind the steering wheel.  "Hey, don't forget
someone making a pass at my husband.  You think I wasn't watching all those
police women in there, seeing if any of them were making eyes at you?"

"You're still thinking about that note and the flowers?  Lois, I told you,
I would *never*--"

At the anxious expression that flickered across Clark's face, Lois raised a
hand quickly to reassure him.  "Yes, I'm thinking about them, but no, I
don't think you are cheating on me."  She smiled tenderly as she brushed his
chin with her fingers.  "I trust you, remember?"

Clark caught her hand and pressed a gentle kiss into her palm.  "I
remember, and I trust you, too," he concurred softly.  "I still think
someone's just playing a joke."

"Easy for you to say.  You didn't get three hang-up calls yesterday," Lois
said pointedly as she retrieved her hand and started the car.

"Well, maybe they're taking the joke too far.   Let's grab a quick lunch
and get back to the newsroom.   We'll keep our ears open at the Planet and
see if we can learn anything."

"Fine with me."  Suddenly Lois turned to her husband with a mischievous
grin.  "Hey, maybe Ralph has given up his crush on me, and has turned his
attentions to you instead."

At Clark's horrified look, Lois laughed out loud and pulled the car into
traffic.

*****

"The Daily Planet newsroom is divided into sections, just like the
newspaper itself ...."

Jimmy Olsen walked through the newsroom gesturing expressively, an
attractive young woman following closely behind him.  "Sports and
Classifieds are down on the second floor, while Lifestyle, Entertainment
and the City beat are up here on three.  We pull a fair bit of our
International news off the wire--either from the Planet's overseas
offices or from other news agencies--though sometimes our City reporters
are able to get some directly.  Like when they run into Superman after an
international rescue and he gives them an interview about it."

"Where's the Lifestyle department again?" the young woman asked, looking
more than a little overwhelmed by the huge office space.

"That's where we just came from," Jimmy explained.  "Through that door back
there, take a left ..."  The two stopped as Jimmy pointed out directions.
"Once they get a desk for you, you're going to sit in the Lifestyle area,
but with
Mrs. Lawrence, the Lifestyle Section Editor, out until this afternoon for a
doctor's appointment, they're not sure where to put you yet.  Personnel
said you could fill out your employment papers here in the City section.
We have an extra desk since one of our reporters just left on an overseas
assignment."

The woman nodded as Jimmy led her to her desk.  "Thanks, Jimmy.  I
appreciate you helping me.  I don't think I could have found my way here
without getting lost.  A couple people from the department took me out to
lunch, but I'm kind of on my own now until Mrs. Lawrence gets back."

Jimmy smiled. "No problem ... Kate, right?"  At her nod, he continued. "I
got lost a few times my first few days at the Planet, too.   But you'll get
used to it quickly."  Jimmy looked at his watch.  "Uh oh, I gotta go ... I
was supposed to collect some files for Lois and she should be back any
minute.  When she calls on her cell phone from the car, you know she's
anxious to get the information!  Talk to you later, Kate."

*****

"I hope Jimmy has those files for me when we get in," Lois said, fidgeting
as she watched the numbers light up in the Daily Planet elevator.  "There
has to be something connecting these murders, and I'm going to find out
what."

Clark grinned.  "That's what I love about you.  You never give up on
anything easily."

Lois smiled at Clark over her shoulder.  "That's not the only thing you
love about me, is it?"  she teased.

Clark laughed.  "Nope, that's just one of the many."

"Good."  Lois turned with a grin, standing on tiptoes to give him a quick
kiss.  "Just checking."

The change in her demeanor was swift, however, as the ding of the elevator
announced the arrival of the Daily Planet's top reporting team in the
newsroom.   Lois had barely started down the stairs into the City section
before she'd spotted her quarry.

"Jimmy!  Do you have those files I asked you for?"

Jimmy set the armful of files on Lois's desk.  "Ask and you shall receive,
oh, brilliant investigative reporter."

Lois couldn't help but smile at Jimmy's exhalation.  "My, aren't we in a
good mood?"  Lois looked around the newsroom, then back at Jimmy knowingly.
"Let me guess, the cute new employee at six o'clock?"

Jimmy turned to look behind him, and saw the young woman he had just given
the tour to sitting at her desk, several yards away.  When he turned back
to Lois, he had a look of pretend hurt.  "Lois, I'm shocked.  You know I
have a girlfriend."

Lois snickered.  "Uh huh ... and I also know you still like to window shop,
even if you have no intention of buying anything."

"Wha--?  I--I ... I don't ...."  He cringed.  "Am I that obvious?"

Lois rolled her eyes.  "Men!  Don't worry, I won't tell Penny, though I'd
bet a hundred dollars I wouldn't be telling her anything she doesn't
already know."  Lois elbowed Jimmy.  "Just keep your eyes and hands to
yourself, lover boy, and you'll be fine."

"I'll remember that,"  Jimmy quipped with a grin, suddenly back to his
easy-going self.  "Now I'd better get back to work, before Perry has my
hide.  Let me know if you need any more research."  He started to back away
from her desk.

Lois smiled gratefully at him.  "Thanks, Jimmy."  When he'd gone, Lois
settled into her chair and opened the first folder in the large stack.

*****

As Clark checked his voice mail, he was unaware of a female set of eyes
watching him as he scribbled notes at his desk.   An awed smile broke out
on the young woman's face as she watched him work, and she quickly pushed
aside her papers and pulled a compact mirror from her purse. After checking
her hair and reapplying her lipstick, she stood up and crossed the room to
his desk.

The woman stood nervously in front of Clark's desk, her smile wavering a
bit when he failed to notice her.  Finally, no longer able to contain herself,
she spoke.  "Hi, Clark."

Clark looked up at the breathless young woman standing before him.  Her
dark eyes were bright as she eagerly waited for his response.  He stared at
her for a moment, trying to place her.  She looked somewhat familiar and
she was acting like she knew him ...

Soon Clark's face lit up in recognition.  "Kate?  Kate Martin!   I don't
believe it; how long has it been?!"  Clark stood up to shake Kate's hand,
but she pulled him into a quick hug instead.

"Why didn't you let me know you were in town?" Clark asked when they
stepped apart.

"Well, actually," she responded happily, "I--"

Lois looked up from her files at the sudden conversation, and noted the
young woman she had pointed out to Jimmy earlier.    Since the woman was
standing in the aisle between Lois and Clark's desks, Lois decided to stand
and introduce herself.  "Hi," she said, interrupting Kate's explanation.
"I'm Lois Lane, Clark's ... partner."  At the last word, she winked at her
husband.

Kate seemed surprised to see another person standing with her and Clark,
but she soon recovered.  "Nice to meet you, Lois," she said.  "I've seen
your name next to Clark's on some articles."

Clark quickly made the more detailed introductions.  "Lois, this is Kate
Martin.  Kate and I used to work together in Smallville.  She did a summer
internship at the Smallville Press while I was the Editor there.  That was
... gosh, eight years ago now?  Nine?"

Kate nodded.  "I know, I can't believe it."  She turned and stared into
Clark's eyes.  "It seems like only yesterday ..."

Lois raised an eyebrow.  The look on Kate's face was unmistakable.  The
young woman had a definite crush on her husband.    Curious about this
woman, Lois offered, "Clark, I think Kate is working here now.  Wasn't that
you sitting over at Frank's old desk, Kate?"

Kate nodded.  "Uh huh; they're supposed to find me my own desk tomorrow,
but they told me to use one over here this afternoon."

Clark was surprised but visibly pleased.  "You've got a job with the
Planet?  That's wonderful.  What are you going to be doing?"

"Well, I'm kind of starting at the bottom--I'm working as an assistant to
Mrs. Lawrence in the Lifestyle section.    I'm going to be doing a lot of
copy-editing and rewrites in the beginning, but if I work hard, I know I
can be an editor myself someday.  That's been my goal for a long
time--working for a big city newspaper.  So, I decided to just go for it!
I moved to Metropolis, set up an interview with Mrs. Lawrence, and here I
am."

Clark smiled at Kate's earnest, cheerful demeanor.  "Well, good
for you.  And welcome to Metropolis.  We'll have to have you over for
dinner sometime."  Clark looked at Lois, who smiled and nodded politely in
agreement.

Kate glanced at Lois for a moment, then back to Clark.  "We?" she asked,
confused.

Clark picked up the picture frame on his desk.  He turned it so Kate could
see.  "Lois is my wife," he explained with a smile.  "And this beautiful
little thing," he continued proudly, pointing to an inset picture, "is our
daughter, Laura."

Kate stared at the pictures.  "You're married?"   She looked at
Lois, who nodded and smiled.  "Oh ... I ... well ..."  The girl seemed at a
loss for words.  She finally settled on a weak, "Congratulations."

There was a brief, awkward moment as the three of them stood there staring
at each other, and Lois couldn't help feeling relieved when Jimmy rushed
over to them.

"Lois," he exclaimed, his voice sounding slightly deeper than normal.  "I
found one more file from that information you asked me to get.  I thought
it might be helpful."

Lois smiled at him and reached for the folder he was holding out to her.
She couldn't help noticing that his eyes weren't on hers, though, but on
Kate.  Lois chuckled to herself and shook her head slightly.  "Thanks,
Jimmy."

Clark seemed grateful for the interruption, too, and flashed Kate a quick
smile before turning to Lois.  "Well, Lois, should we get to work?"

Lois nodded.  "Yeah, we'd better.  Nice to meet you, Kate."

Kate smiled, but Lois couldn't help noticing that it seemed a bit forced.
"It was nice meeting you, too."

As they returned to their chairs, Lois glanced back at Kate, who
was settling herself in at her desk and talking with Jimmy.  "Did something
about Kate's reaction seem strange to you, Clark?"

Clark looked confused.  "What do you mean?  Don't you like Kate?"

"Oh, no, that's not it.  She seems very nice.  It's just--"  Lois thought
for a minute, then shrugged.  "No, never mind.  I'm sure she's just nervous
about starting a new job and everything."  Deciding it best to change the
subject, Lois held up the folder.  "I hope there's more useful information
in here than we were able to get this morning at police headquarters."

******

The afternoon passed swiftly, but by the end of the day, Lois and Clark
were no less frustrated than they had been at the police station.   The
background checks Jimmy had assembled on the various victims offered a wide
range of information.   There were people from all walks of life--art
collectors and trash collectors, business men and homeless men, people with
long criminal records and those with not even a traffic ticket.

Discouraged, Lois and Clark decided to call it a night, and retrieved their
daughter from the daycare center downstairs.

When they got home from work, Lois fed Laura while Clark put together the
fixings for a quick dinner.   He came back into the living room just as
Lois was buttoning up her shirt.

"Come on, sweetheart," Clark cooed at his little girl.  "Let's get you into
a dry diaper so Mommy and Daddy can eat their own dinner."  He turned to
his wife.  "Lois, dinner is almost ready. Just stir the sauce a little so
it doesn't burn, OK?"  At Lois's nod, Clark and Laura headed up the stairs.

Lois entered the kitchen and smiled as she breathed in the heavenly aromas.
It wasn't anything fancy--just some sweet and sour chicken Clark had made
over the weekend and was now heating up--but she was hungry!  Noticing
the sauce was bubbling, Lois turned down the heat and pulled out two
plates.   Placing a generous spoon of rice in the center of each dish, she
was in the process of covering the plates with sauce when the phone rang.

"Clark?"  Lois called out.  "Can you get that?"

"I can't, honey,"  he called back.  "I'm in the middle of changing Laura."

Lois awkwardly set the pan  and plate down and reached for the phone.  "Hello?"

She was surprised when nobody responded on the other end.  She felt her
skin prickle.  "Hello?"  she asked again, this time her tone reflecting her
anger.  Feeling her temper flaring, she snapped into the phone,
"Whoever this is, quit calling us!"

Clark walked in carrying Laura, just in time to see Lois slam the phone
down angrily.  "What was that all about?"

Lois shook her head, trying to calm herself down.   "Just our
not-so-friendly neighborhood stalker,"  she answered through gritted teeth.
"I wish whoever this is would quit calling and just leave us alone.
It's getting a little old."

"Are you okay?"  Clark asked, putting a hand gently on her shoulder.  "You
look a little shaken."

Lois shrugged his hand off her shoulder and walked over to get the plates.
"No, I'm fine.  I'm just mad, that's all."

Clark looked at his wife in concern for a moment, then quickly put Laura in
the baby swing next to the table, trying to make his voice sound happy.
"Here you go, baby girl ... you can swing while Mommy and Daddy eat."

*****

Dinner went quickly, though Lois continued to feel somewhat distracted by
the disturbing series of hang ups she'd gotten over the past few days.  But
she did her best to put aside her thoughts and enjoy the opportunity that
she, Clark and Laura had for a little family time.

After an enjoyable evening playing with Laura and talking, Lois felt more
relaxed by the time Laura's bedtime came.  Clark offered to put Laura in
bed, and told Lois to go ahead and take some time for herself.  Lois didn't
need any more encouragement.  By the time Clark came into the bedroom an
hour later, Lois was already in bed, reading an article in a magazine.

"Well, Laura's sound asleep,"  Clark reported as he untied his robe and
slipped out of it.  He laid it across the back of the chair and then
climbed under the covers.  "It looks like we finally have some time to
ourselves."

Lois put the magazine down on her lap and smiled tiredly at him.  "Those
times seem to be getting fewer and farther between lately."

"Very true."  He gestured to the magazine on her lap.  "What are you reading?"

"Oh, I was reading an article about some historic homes in Metropolis.
Metropolis Today did a feature on them this month and I thought it might be
interesting."

"Sounds interesting.  I'd like to take a look when you're done."

"Go ahead,"  Lois told him, tossing it onto his lap.  "I'm worn out.  I
think I'm just going to lie here for a while."

Clark took his time reading the article, for once enjoying not having to
speed through something.  He was startled out of his relaxed state,
however, when the
phone on the bedside table suddenly rang.  Lois groaned.

"Who could be calling at this time of night?"  Clark wondered aloud.  "It's
nearly eleven."

Lois sighed.  "I don't know, but I'll get it."  She rolled over and reached
for the phone.  "Hello?"

As soon as she'd finished the word, the phone suddenly clicked in her ear
and the line went dead.  Frustrated, Lois set the phone back it its cradle
loudly.

Clark looked concerned.  "*Another* hang up?"

"Yes,"  Lois grumbled.  She rolled over to look at Clark.  "Clark, we've
got to find out who's doing this.  It's all getting way out of hand.  I'd be
willing to say the flowers were a joke, but all these hang-up calls are
getting creepy.  Isn't there something we can do about this?"

Clark ran a hand through his hair.  "Maybe we should just turn the ringer
off for awhile.  Whoever is doing this might get tired of getting the
machine and stop calling.  It might just be some kids being obnoxious; the
flowers could be totally unrelated."  At Lois skeptical look, he sighed.
"I know; I don't believe that either," he admitted.

"Even assuming the phone calls are just a prank, someone sent you flowers
with a romantic note."  Lois's eyes narrowed.  "And there's only one person
we know of who has displayed a romantic obsession with you--and a strong
distaste for me."

"*Who*?"  It was Clark's turn to look skeptical.

"Ms. Bailey, from Social Services.  Remember what Constance Hunter's
private detective turned up during the custody hearing?  That Bailey had
developed a crush on you while evaluating us as adoptive parents--and that
she'd been so aggressive in proving me an unfit mother because she was
jealous of our relationship?"

Clark didn't disagree but he still looked doubtful.   "I think we're
getting a bit paranoid here."

Lois snorted and laid her head back on the pillow.  "Fine.  Just don't say
I didn't warn you when we find a dead rabbit cooking on our stove."

Clark chuckled and went back to his magazine.  "Deal."

He continued to browse through the magazine for another few minutes.
Suddenly he sat up straighter.  "Speaking of being paranoid...." he began,
leaning forward to study a picture in the magazine in more detail.

Lois recognized his tone and looked over at him.  "What?"

Clark turned the magazine pages toward her so she could see the large
picture.  "Take a look at this picture.  You recognize anything?"

Lois took the magazine out of his hand.  "'Mrs. Beth Luthor has given so
much to Metropolis.  Now she takes us on a tour of her lovely home,'" Lois
read aloud from the page.  She made a fake retching noise.  "Oh, God, I'm
going to throw up."

"Look at the picture of Luthor's study.  What's mounted on the wall behind
the desk?"

Lois straightened in bed and studied the picture more intently.  "It looks
like a sword ... the sword of Alexander the Great that he used to have?"

At Clark's nod, she turned back to study the rest of the picture.  She
pointed to various items.  "Lex used to love telling me about his
antiquities.  This frieze over the fireplace, he told me it came from
ancient Egypt.  And this vase was from the Ming Dynasty."  Lois looked up
at Clark.  "But all those things were auctioned off five years ago when
Lex--or his clone or whoever it was--committed suicide by jumping off of
Lex Towers.  Even the things that he left to Arianna Carlin were auctioned
when she needed the money to pay her legal bills."

"Makes you wonder how he got them all back so quickly, doesn't it?  It's
only been, what, a year and a half since he showed back up in Metropolis,
claiming he'd been kidnapped and replaced by his clone right before he
bought the Daily Planet building?"

"Right after he proposed to me, but before I answered him."

"So what happened?  People just gave him back his antiques out of the
goodness of their hearts?"  Clark's voice was sarcastic.

"He may have bought them," Lois countered reasonably.  Normally it was
Clark who was the voice of reason, but when it came to Lex Luthor, their
roles frequently seemed to reverse.  "But still--if he's acquiring his old
'treasures', it makes me wonder what other parts of his old life he's
trying to get back.  When Lex wanted something, he never gave up until he
possessed it."

As these words hung in the air, Lois and Clark stared at each other.
Intuitively, they knew what the other was thinking--memories of Lex
kidnapping Lois after her and Clark's first wedding came crashing into
their minds.  They each shuddered slightly, despite their best efforts to
resist.

They sat in silence for a long moment, each lost in their own thoughts,
until finally Clark spoke quietly.  "What if Luthor's clone story is a lie?"

Lois swallowed.  "We thought that right from the beginning, when he first
came back.  But the police and courts decided he was telling the truth."

Clark shook his head slightly.  "No, they said they couldn't prove the
story was false.  That's not the same thing as finding proof it was true."

"I want it to be true," Lois admitted quietly.  "I want to believe that the
monster who did all those terrible things is dead.  I want to know that the
person who kidnapped me and tried to kill you will never be able to hurt us
again.  The alternative--"

"--is too scary to think about."

"Yeah," she whispered.

Clark pulled Lois into his arms.  "It's scary for me, too.   I don't trust
Luthor--even if his story is true, he was a criminal long before he claimed
he was replaced.  But if he did orchestrate the whole thing, we have a
larger problem."

"Because then he knows you're Superman."

"And he could use it against me--or you."

"Or Laura."

Clark took a shuddering breath and held Lois closer.  "I think," he said
quietly after a long pause, "whether Luthor is lying or telling the truth
about the clone, he's still very dangerous, and nothing will ever convince
me otherwise.  We've let our guard down this last year. We were so
busy--first with the pregnancy, then Laura herself--and we let ourselves
believe that everything was going to be OK.  And it might be.  But I don't
want to let myself get distracted anymore.  You and Laura are too important
to me to put you at risk, just because I wasn't proactive enough.  I
couldn't live with myself if anything happened."

Lois buried her head deeper into Clark's chest, needing to feel him strong
next to her.   She knew Clark was right--they'd let themselves believe they
were safe because the alternative was too scary to think about.  But where
Lex Luthor was involved, they could never let their guard down.

"Don't worry, honey," Clark murmured.  "I won't let him hurt you--not ever
again."

*****

ACT TWO

*****

"Hurry up, Clark, or we're going to be late."  Lois's voice carried up the
stairs.

"We're almost done," he called back as he struggled to put a wobbly baby
arm into a clean shirt.  In a quieter voice, he addressed the little girl
in front of him on the changing table.  "And you, little miss, shouldn't
spit up just as we are running out the door!"

Laura just gurgled up at him with a happy smile, which made Clark laugh.
"You just love running us in circles, don't you?" he baby-talked.  "Don't
you?"

"Clark!"

"Coming!"   Satisfied that Laura was presentable again, Clark picked her up
and whooshed her down the stairs, coming to a windy halt next to Lois, who
was standing with one hand already on the door knob.  "Come on, honey, what
are we waiting for?" he said with a grin.

Lois smiled despite herself as she led them out into the foyer, locking the
front door behind her.  She looked at her happy daughter, wiggling
excitedly in Clark's arms.  "Eight months old and she already likes to fly;
she's definitely your daughter."

Clark pulled Lois into a close embrace with his free arm.  "And yours," he
grinned as he kissed her sweetly on the lips.

Loading Laura into her car-seat and packing the back with their many bags,
Lois marveled at the fact that they even got out of the house in the
morning.   When the elder Kents were staying with them, things had been so
much easier--breakfast was waiting on the table when they came downstairs
in the morning and Laura was changed and dressed while Lois and Clark ate
in peace.  And of course, the only bags the reporters carried to the car
contained any work they had brought home the night before.

As wonderful as it was to have live-in baby-sitters, however, space had
been getting tight in the townhouse.  So when Martha and Jonathan saw an ad
for a relatively inexpensive sub-let only a few blocks away, they quickly
signed up.  Lois and Clark had been surprised--they hadn't thought the
Kents would want the extra expense of an apartment, even a small one,
especially since Lois and Clark were planning to start Laura in the Daily
Planet Daycare Center as soon as it opened.  But the price and the location
of the apartment were right, and it gave the elder Kents a convenient base
of operations in Metropolis, a place where they could store their
belongings when traveling, while at the same time helping out a young
college professor who needed a house-sitter while he was on overseas
sabbatical from the University of Metropolis.  And of course--just as
Lois had predicted--the more they got to know their granddaughter, the
less alluring those extended trips had become.

Of course, Jonathan and Martha were currently on just such a trip.  But
this time, they planned to be gone no more than a few weeks--and they'd
already extracted a promise from their son that they could baby-sit when
they returned.  But for now, the Daily Planet Daycare Center had Laura
registered for three to four days a week.

It had taken Lois and Clark a couple of weeks to settle into their own morning
routine. By working together and planning ahead, they usually managed to
get themselves and Laura out of the house at a fairly respectable time --
except when Laura threw them a curve ball as they were walking out the door,
of course.

Behind the wheel of the Jeep, Lois expertly navigated the city streets,
driving only a little more aggressively than usual to make up the minutes
lost this morning.  She figured she had done pretty well to get them here
safely--Clark had only grabbed the dashboard twice in their fifteen
minute commute as Lois deftly swerved in and out of traffic.

Yet they had arrived safe and sound--at least if "sound" included lugging
several overstuffed bags and a 15 pound baby into the lobby of the Daily
Planet building.

"Here we are," Lois said brightly as they arrived at the brightly painted
door of the daycare center.  The director of the center, Mrs. Ruth Wilson,
opened the door for them with a cheerful "good morning" and helped Lois
with the bags.

"This green bag has a few changes of clothes for Laura, just in case," Lois
explained, handing the bag to Ruth.  "And this insulated one has three
bottles of breast milk.  Can we just put those in the refrigerator?"  At
the woman's nod, Lois continued, "Laura is still a little sniffly, but the
worst of the cold seems to have passed ..."

The two women organized Laura's possessions while Lois continued to update
the director on Laura's condition.  As they wound up their conversation,
however,  Lois looked around in surprise.  "Now where's Clark?" she
wondered aloud.  "He must still be out in the hall."

As Mrs. Wilson carried Laura's bottles into the kitchen, Lois turned and
headed back through the Center's door and into the lobby of the Planet
building.  She didn't see Clark immediately, but as she glanced around the
lobby, the sound of familiar laughter caught her attention.  Lois focused
her gaze on the area in front of the coffee shop and found her husband --
sharing a cappuccino with Kate Martin.

Lois watched as Clark handed Laura to Kate while he dug a few dollars out
of his wallet to pay for two coffees.   Kate made funny faces and tickled
the girl until Laura laughed with delight.   Taking a sip of her coffee,
Kate then turned her attention to Clark, saying something that made him
smile proudly.  Lois stood up a bit straighter as she noticed the way Kate
kept touching Clark's arm, and the way Clark was soaking up the attention,
leaning in to listen to Kate, his eyes dancing at some shared joke.

As Lois watched this other woman hold her daughter and flirt with her
husband, she felt a momentary pang of jealousy.   Words her mother said
repeatedly while Lois was growing up echoed somewhere in the most insecure
parts of her mind ... 'he'll cheat on you, you can't trust him.'

Watching Clark coo at their daughter, however, Lois banished the voices of
the past.  She trusted Clark implicitly--and nothing anyone else could
say or do would make her doubt his love for her.

With renewed confidence, Lois made her way across the lobby towards the
couple.  "Hi," she said brightly to Kate, not allowing even the hint of her
earlier doubt to enter her voice.  She was not going to give this young
women the satisfaction of knowing Lois had ever considered her a threat.

Clark fixed his wife with a pleased smile.  Lois noticed that Kate seemed
disappointed, but Clark didn't look the least bit guilty.

"Hi, honey!" he said as he took Laura back from Kate.  "Are we all set
inside?  Laura and I were just about to follow you in when Kate flagged us
down to say hello."  Clark shot Kate a smile, which the young woman
returned in spades.

Lois just smiled knowingly.  "She did, did she?  Well, it's nice you two
got some time to catch up.  But now," she turned her smile to Clark, "we
better drop Laura off and get upstairs, or Perry is going to make *us*
catch up by staying late tonight."

"Very true.  See you later, Kate."

"OK, Clark!  See you later," the girl enthused.  "And bye-bye, baby Laura
... I really enjoyed holding you."

It wasn't until they walked back into the nursery that Lois realized Kate
hadn't acknowledged her presence at all.  'Very interesting,' she mused.
The young woman's crush on Clark was so obvious it was almost embarrassing.
This idea--coupled with the fact that Clark seemed almost completely
oblivious to it--made Lois laugh out loud.

"What?" Clark inquired with a cock of his head.

Lois waved him off as they carried Laura to her room and hung up her coat.
"Nothing; really, it's nothing."  Then she spied the covered cup of coffee
in his hand.  "Say, were you going to buy me one of those or just Kate?"

Clark looked lost for a moment until he noticed what she was looking at.
"Oh ... Oh!"  Lois thought she had 'caught' him until Clark proved once
again that he was always full of surprises.  He handed her the cup.
"Actually, this is for you.  I already drank mine."   The way Lois stared
at him made him shift his weight.  "What?" he asked again, a little
self-consciously.

Lois just shook her head and smiled warmly.  "You," she said simply, "never
cease to amaze me."  Lois looked as if she was going to say more, but just
then Mrs. Wilson walked up to them and held out her hands for Laura.

"Hi Clark; hi again, Lois.  Laura's bottles are all packed away in the
fridge and I've stored her clothes and diapers in her basket ... I think we
are all set."

Clark gave his young daughter a hug and a kiss, and held her up so Lois
could do the same.  They handed the smiling child to Ruth Wilson, who
greeted the baby warmly.  As Lois and Clark turned to leave, however, they
were drawn back by the sound of their baby's wails.

"Oh, Laura, honey, don't cry!" Lois begged.  She looked helplessly at Ruth.
"She was so good the first month we brought her here.  I don't understand
why she's been doing this lately."

Mrs. Wilson rubbed Laura's back and spoke soothingly--to both child and
parents.  "I know it's hard, Lois.  But believe me, she stops crying almost
as soon as you go.  It's just seeing you leave that's hard for her.
Within a few minutes, she always remembers how much fun she has here and is
excited to join in with the other kids."

After a few more moments of trying to calm Laura, Lois and Clark admitted
they were just making it harder by staying--both for themselves and
Laura.  They gave their daughter one final kiss and forced themselves to
wave cheerfully as they headed for the elevator.

"I just hate leaving her when she cries like that," Clark said emotionally
as soon as the door closed.

Lois rubbed her hand sympathetically over his arm.  "I know; me too.  Ruth
says eight months is a big 'separation anxiety' age and it's completely
normal for Laura to cry.  We're supposed to act confident and show Laura
there's nothing to fear."

Clark still looked upset, however, and kept casting longing glances back at
the daycare center door as they walked through the lobby.  "It's hard for
me," he admitted.  He tugged on his earlobe, indicating his super-hearing.
"It's not like I automatically pick it up every time she cries, but once I do
tune her in, it's really hard for me to tune her back out."

As they entered the elevator, Lois wrapped her arms around her husband's
neck and snuggled up to him.   "You're a good daddy," she told him with a
smile.  "Next year, she'll probably run into the center without even
looking back, and then you'll be miserable because you think she doesn't
need you anymore."

"Probably.  I just--"   Feeling his emotions build again, he stopped
himself and gave his head a warning shake.  He then fixed his wife with a
tender smile and lowered his forehead until it rested against Lois's.  His
voice dropped to a tender whisper.  "I'm just so happy we made a baby
together.  I love you both so much."

Lois's smile twisted a bit.  "And we love you, too.  So much."

They were still kissing when the elevator opened in the newsroom.

*****

Later that morning, Lois found Clark at his desk, papers and folders nearly
covering its work surface.  "Any luck?" she asked him, noting that he was
working through the list of recent murders in Metropolis.

Clark crossed another name off a long list and ran a hand through his hair.
"Maybe ... I'm not sure yet.  I've found a few things that might be
considered unusual--but then I look further and it turns out to look more
like a coincidence."

Lois pulled up her chair.  "Well, let's both work on it.  I just finished
my story on the city's redevelopment plan for 44th Street.  So I've got
some time to help you go through these files."

The two reporters worked for some time, checking and cross-checking the
list of victims, trying to find the common element they must have missed
before.   They were about to admit defeat when Lois suddenly sat up a bit
straighter.  "Clark, hand me that stack I just looked through ... I might
be on to something."

As Clark waited expectantly, Lois double-checked her information, looking
first surprised, then thoughtful.   Finally, she handed Clark a list with
four names circled.  "Do those four names ring any bells for you?"

Clark looked at the list, and furrowed his brow.  "Well, Arthur Coogan was
an art dealer on the Upper East Side ... and wasn't Karl Heinz in the
import/export business?  Kind of shady?  But I don't recognize these other
two names ... Anne Maxwell and Robert Turner."

Lois took the list back.  "Anne Maxwell is--was--an expert in antiques
and Robert Turner supposedly dealt in the black market for rare coins."

Clark shrugged.  "OK, so they all dealt in valuable items, some
legitimately, some less so.  But that's only four people out of what?
Twenty suspicious murders in the last six months?  What's the connection?"

"What if I told you that all four of them ..."  Lois turned around in her
chair, reached across the aisle, and pulled an open copy of this month's
Metropolis Today magazine from the corner of her desk.  She tossed the open
magazine in front of Clark dramatically. "Attended the auction of Lex
Luthor's estate five yeas ago."

Clark let out a low whistle as he gazed at the same magazine spread he and
Lois had pondered the night before.  He looked closely at the items shown
in the photograph.  "And they purchased some of these items?"

Lois hesitated.  "Well, I'm not sure ... yet.  But I know they were there.
I followed the auction at the time.  I got a certain sense of closure that
summer from seeing all of Lex's possessions scattered hither and yon."
Lois shook off the memory and continued determinedly.  "I have a funny
feeling that if we get a list of everything the estate auctioned off and
who bought them, and compare that with a list of our murder victims, we
might find something interesting."

Clark and Lois stared at each other, their eyes gleaming with the
excitement only a hot story could provide.  They turned in unison to the
center of the newsroom.  "JIMMY!"

No sooner were the word out of their mouths than a loud explosion shook
the newsroom.  Shocked staffers ducked for cover as the entire Daily Planet
building vibrated.  It wasn't long before people were flocking to the
windows to see what had happened.  Excited shouts rang out.  "A building
blew up!  I can see the dust ... it looks like it's over on 43rd or 44th
Street!"

Lois turned to face her husband and found his eyes as wide as hers.  "Go.
I'll check on Laura and meet you down there."

Clark nodded quickly and simply disappeared from his chair, leaving Lois
blinking in surprise.  Rare was the time that Clark would risk flying out
in a crowded newsroom, not even trying to make an excuse that would give a
reason for "Clark's" disappearance.  Whatever had exploded obviously
required his immediate attention.

Perry's loud timbre resonated from his office door, drawing everyone's
attention.  "Listen up, people!  The old Dexter building on 44th Street
just exploded.  The police are already evacuating a one block radius around
the building.   It looks like another natural gas leak.   Robertson!  Get
on the phone to the Metropolis Gas & Electric;  find out what they're doing
to address the situation.   Kruller and Jones, I want you to ..."

Perry continued to organize his troops but Lois was no longer listening.
She had already grabbed her bag and her coat, and was halfway to the
staircase.  She would check on Laura, first, of course, and make sure
everything was under control in the daycare center.  But as long as
everything was fine with her daughter, she was anxious to get to the scene
of the explosion.

She had just been writing about the old Dexter building this morning--it
was part of the block scheduled for demolition to make way for the city's
new redevelopment plan.  She was sure she could come up with some fresh
angle to join the two stories.

*****

Lois didn't have to wait long to find her angle.

After canvassing the gathering crowd for witness accounts of what had
happened and asking some tough questions during an impromptu press
conference held by the Mayor, police lieutenant and Superman, Lois had
more than enough notes to piece together a story about the explosion
itself.  What caught her interest, however, were the vague answers she had
received from a few city officials.

Interestingly, although the Dexter building was in the redevelopment zone
declared by the city and was expected to be condemned any day now, the City
Planner--whom Lois had cornered two blocks away from the explosion --
reluctantly admitted the city didn't yet have actual ownership of the
building.  Even more strange, the man refused to name the building's
current owner.

Her curiosity piqued, Lois spent the next several hours keeping her ear to
the ground and visiting some of her more reliable informants.   When she
finally returned to the newsroom later that afternoon, she had a notebook
full of scribbles and a request placed for Research to pull several old
files from the morgue.

After stopping in at the daycare center to check once more on her
daughter--and to feed her, for Lois's comfort as well as Laura's--Lois was
back in the newsroom to type up her story and summarize her notes.   She
was pleased to note that Clark had beat her back to work, and he was typing
furiously at his computer.

Lois stopped to look over his shoulder as he typed.  "Nice ..." she
offered, after reading a few paragraphs.  Clark stopped typing and silently
used his mouse to scroll to the top to let her see the rest.    The more
Lois read, the more she nodded.  "Very nice, Clark ... this is really
good."  She pointed to a particular section.  "Are you serious?  Twenty
injuries reported, but no deaths?"

Clark adjusted his glasses. "Yeah, we got really lucky.  Most of the block
had been cordoned off since last week to make way for the building next
door to be demolished.  And get this--the workers on the crew, who would
have been right in the line of fire, were called off the project before
they even started this morning due to some malfunctioning equipment.  They
all would have been killed had they been on the job--the explosion
started in the Dexter building, but it also took out the two condemned
buildings on either side of it."

"So the city saves the expense of knocking down the three remaining
buildings on that site," Lois observed.  "And doesn't lose a life in the
process.  Quite a big coincidence."

"Or a very moral saboteur," Clark murmured.

Lois lowered her voice to match his.  "Does Superman think it was sabotage?"

"I'm not sure yet," Clark responded, "but there were a few things that
didn't look right.  I didn't put any of it in the story, not yet.   But
Superman is going to be following the city's investigation closely over the
next several weeks.  I'm sure he'll give me an interview if I ask nicely."
The last statement was accompanied by a wink, which made Lois smile.

"Well, I've got some angles to follow, too.  Nothing concrete yet, but some
rumors that I wanted to check out.  I think we're both going to be busy
this week."

"Let's get to it, then."

*****

The rest of the afternoon passed quickly, and Lois and Clark were able to
write up their preliminary findings into a story and get it to Perry before
6 o'clock.   After assuring Perry that they would be doing some more
research at home that night, they picked up Laura and were on the road home
by 6:30.

Lois collapsed on the couch with an exhausted sigh as Clark returned to the
car to bring in all of their bags.  Laura had fallen asleep in the car on
the way home and they had simply carried the entire car-seat into the foyer
to let her continue to nap.  Of course, this meant she wasn't going to
sleep until later than usual this evening, but at this point Lois was too
tired to care.  She would deal with that after she'd had a chance to unwind
and eat some of the Chinese carry-out they had picked up on the way home.

Clark deposited the last of the bags in the front hall and dropped the mail
in Lois's lap as he continued on into the kitchen.

After resting for several minutes in the living room, the smell of Hunan
Chicken drew Lois into the kitchen to join him.

"Mmm, that smells great," she offered as she filled their water glasses and
waited while Clark dished out two plates of food.  "I can't remember the
last time Laura slept through dinner, but it will be nice to eat in peace
and quiet for once.  Poor thing, this cold must really have knocked her
out."

"It's too bad she's sick, but it is kind of interesting," Clark offered,
swallowing some rice.   "I mean, I never caught colds, even when I was
little, but Laura obviously can.  Yet we know from our run-in with Mxyzptlk
last month that Laura will develop powers as she gets older."

"True," Lois agreed.  "Unless Mix-master did something to her to make her
have powers.  Maybe it was all his doing."

Clark considered this as he bit into an eggroll.  "I suppose," he said with
a smile, "that we'll just have to wait until she grows up to find out."

Lois leaned over and opened her mouth, indicating for him to let her share
his appetizer.  "Just the way it should be," she grinned as he complied.

After some more chit-chat, Clark noticed that Lois had brought the mail in
with her from the living room.  "Anything good in the mail?" he asked,
reaching for it.

"I dunno; I haven't gone through it yet."

Clark sorted by name and handed Lois her stack.  Lois shuffled through the
envelopes ... bill, bill, magazine ... "What's this one?" she wondered out
loud, holding a plain white envelope up for him to see.  "There's no return
address."

"Open it and find out,"  Clark suggested as he stood to refill his plate.

Lois pushed her plate to one side as she tore open the envelope.  The
address on the front side was typewritten and there was a Metropolis
postmark, but no other indications of where it had come from.  As she
opened the folded paper inside and began to read it with only passing
curiosity, Lois felt the blood drain from her face.

At her audible gasp, Clark turned from the sink.  "What's wrong?  What is
it, honey?"

With a shaking hand, Lois held out the letter for him to see.

	He doesn't love you, Lois.   He wants to leave you.
	You're trying to hold onto him, but you can't.
	Let him go so he can be happy.  He loves only me.

				-- You know who

Clark finished reading it and looked up at Lois, his expression filled with
concern and anxiety.  "Lois, you know none of this is true--"

Lois quickly nodded, though still visibly shaken.  "I know.  But
someone is going to a lot of trouble to try to drive a stake between us.  Why?
Why are they doing this to us?"

"I don't know,"  Clark admitted, sighing deeply.  He leaned forward and
gathered his wife into his arms, holding her tightly.  "But you can count on
one thing--no matter what this person tries, *no one* is going to come
between us."

*****

Lois and Clark did their best to put the unnerving piece of mail out of
their minds as they got themselves and Laura ready to go to the Planet the
next morning.   With all the stories and investigations they had going at
work, they knew they couldn't afford to let themselves get too distracted.
Still, there was a tension in the air they couldn't manage to shake.

After getting Laura situated in the daycare center, Lois and Clark headed
up to the newsroom.  They decided their best plan of attack was to split up
the work, so Clark spent much of the morning trying to track down a list of
the people who had attended the 1994 auction of Lex Luthor's possessions,
while Lois continued her investigation into the previous day's explosion.

It was nearly lunch time when Lois motioned for Clark to join her in the
conference room.  "Any luck with the auction list?"

"Some," Clark responded.  "I obtained a copy of the sign-in sheet from the
day of the auction, but it's been slow going trying to make out some of the
handwriting.  The harder part has been getting the list of what was
purchased by whom.  The auction house admits they have a list; but they are
being slow getting it to me.  I'll head over there this afternoon if it
looks like they're just jerking me around."

Lois smiled.  "You'll just have to *look through* their files yourself, huh?"

Clark shrugged.  "Where Luthor is involved, I'll do what I have to."

Lois made a derisive sound at the mention of Lex's name.  "Speaking of
which, I've found some interesting stuff in here."

Clark cocked his head as he noted the numerous stacks of papers
covering the conference room table.  "Is this everything on the Dexter
building?"

"Yeah, you got a minute for me to fill you in?"

Clark sat down.  "Go for it."

"Well, since the city manager was so elusive about just who owned the
Dexter, I started digging there.   It turns out that up until last week, it
was owned by a developer who was hoping to renovate the building back to
its 1930's glory and run a casino inside."

"Why didn't he?"

"He couldn't get the permits from the city--they wanted the land for the
44th Street redevelopment and wouldn't change the zoning to allow gambling.
The city assumed they could pressure the guy into selling by denying him
his permits.  In fact, the city had gone one step further and filed the
paperwork to have the building condemned, figuring they'd have the property
by this week.  But the developer did an end run around them and sold it to
someone else last week--for a lot more money than the city was offering,
let me tell you.  Two million dollars!  The city was only offering
$500,000."

Clark laughed in disbelief.  "Who would pay two million dollars for a
building that was going to be condemned by the city in only a matter of
days?"

Lois handed him the top piece of paper from the pile in front of her.  "LBL
Real Estate."

"Who?"

"That's what I said.  They aren't registered with the Metropolis Real
Estate Association, the trade group that most companies in the business
belong to.   The Chamber of Commerce has never heard of them; they didn't
even have a listing with the Better Business Bureau. Turns out they didn't
even exist until about three weeks ago.  Brand new company, run by unnamed
trustees.  And they don't have a single employee."

"Shell company?"

"You've got it.  And would you care to offer a guess as to just what this
shell company is a subsidiary of?"

Clark smiled at the grin on Lois's face.  "You look like the cat that
swallowed the canary--let me take a wild guess ... Lex Luthor?"

Lois waggled her eyebrows.  "Give the man a cigar.  LBL Real Estate is a
recently created subsidiary of LexCorp."

Clark looked speculative. "So, Luthor buys a condemned building for a
seemingly ridiculously expensive price ... then it blows up a few days
later."  He snorted.  "Sounds like the Daily Planet buyout from five years
ago.  I bet he insured it for a ton of money, then had it blown up to
collect.  Insurance fraud seems a bit simplistic for Luthor, but I guess
the guy is desperate to regain his fortune."

Lois smirked as she dropped the final bombshell.  "More desperate than you
might think.  There was no insurance."

"What??"

Lois Lane grinned at her husband. "That's what I said.  No insurance.  But
I think I found why Lex bought the building in the first place.  The word
on the street--and I had it confirmed by two different sources--is that
there was something hidden in the walls of the old building.  The building
was one of a string of buildings in Metropolis that had ties to organized
crime sixty years ago."

Clark sat up straighter.  "That's right!  I remember reading about the
Dexter now.  Remember when that group of terrorists took us all hostage in
the newsroom about five years ago?  When they were after a safe that had
been hidden in the walls since the Planet building was a speak-easy?  After
hearing about the history of the Daily Planet building, I decided to
research some of the other buildings in town.  The Dexter held its own
underground casino--a competing one--in those days.  Apparently the two
crime lords were bitter rivals."

"Well, apparently they had one thing in common--they both liked to hide
their money in case they were raided.  The rumor going around on the street
is that there were eight million dollars in bearer bonds hidden in the
walls of the building, but no one knew exactly where."

Clark nodded thoughtfully.  "You think Luthor got the money out, then blew
up the building to hide the evidence?  Not having insurance would be a sure
way to get the investigators off your back--you know they are going to be
looking hard at him when another building he owns is blown up
'accidentally'."

"That's just it--the purchase was only made official a few hours before
the explosion.  He wouldn't have had time to get in there to search for the
bonds.  *And*, according to Bobby Bigmouth, Lex is very upset about the
whole thing."

Clark looked skeptical.  "It could all be an act ... you know as well as I
do that the man is an expert liar."

Lois shrugged.  "Could be, but I don't think so in this case.  I don't know
why, but I have a feeling that Lex Luthor is one unhappy camper right now!"
she finished, a bit gleefully.

*****

Lex Luthor pounded his fist onto his desk so hard that his wedding picture
toppled over.  "No insurance?!?!" he roared.

The small bespectacled man standing in front of the desk cowered and mopped
the sweat from his brow.  "I'm sorry, Mr. Luthor, I don't know what
happened!   I hand-delivered the paperwork to the insurance company myself
two weeks ago, but when they pulled it out of their files today to start
the claim process, they said that the paperwork was incomplete.  I have a
copy with me."  The man nervously handed a file folder to Lex.  "It looks
like your handwriting--though you would be the best judge of that--but
the paperwork is only partly filled out and it isn't signed.  So they are
refusing to process the claim!"

Lex lowered his voice into a barely contained growl.  "I don't care what
excuses they come up with.  You get back there *now* and get this
straightened out.  Or you'll be the one wishing you had insurance!"

"Y- yes, sir ... of course, sir ... I will."

Lex Luthor angrily paced in his office after sending his so-called attorney
scurrying from the office in fear of his life.  Lex had half a mind to send
Enrico O'Reilly after the man, killing him out of spite.  But for some
reason, he believed the man's story--that the paperwork was complete when
he took it to the insurance office.

Lex remembered completing and signing the forms--and giving them to his
attorney to deliver.  It was inconceivable that someone could have switched
paperwork, especially since Lex had only produced the one copy of the
forms.  Yes, it had taken him a day or two to fill out all the forms that
were required but the papers never left his office while he was working on
them.   So unless someone at the insurance company had a device that made
ink disappear without a trace, there was no way his signature could have
vanished.

Yet this latest catastrophe, Lex had to admit, was starting to feel
familiar.  Strange things had been happening for weeks now.  Deals that
were considered sure bets suddenly fell through.  Employees that had been
considered loyal suddenly skipped town as if someone had lured them away.
Numbers were transposed in LexCorp's financial records which caused larger
resulting accounting errors before they were caught.

Mistakes like this didn't just happen--not to him, and certainly not *by*
him.

Lex stood looking out of his picture window, high above Metropolis.
Normally, this view made him gloat over the city.   Everyone who wanted to
see him had to look up.  But today, Lex only seethed.  For it was becoming
increasingly clear to him that his 'bad luck' was being engineered.  There
was simply no other excuse.

Someone was daring to stalk Lex Luthor.

*****

Clark Kent grinned as he watched his wife type up her notes.  Mad Dog Lane
was definitely on the trail, and she smelled victory.   Clark knew his
partner well enough by now to know that once she picked up a scent as
strong as this one, no one on Earth could hide the truth from her.

Waiting until Lois paused in her typing to save the file, Clark crouched
next to her while she sat at her desk.  "Glad to see you are feeling
better," he murmured.

"Feeling better?" she asked distractedly.

"About the letters."

Lois wrinkled her nose and stopped typing all together.  "Oh, those.
Watch, it'll all be a trick by Lex Luthor to distract me from tracking him
down."  Her words were challenging as well as sarcastic.  "I bet this whole
stalker thing is fake, just to divert my attention."

Her sneer was interrupted by the loud jangling of the phone beside her.
Lois and Clark both jumped, and stared at the phone uneasily.

"Or maybe not ..." Lois said, her bravado all but gone.

"Let me get it," Clark offered as he reached for the phone.  "Daily Planet,
Clark Kent speaking."

Lois watched his face as he listened, and relaxed as he smiled and covered
the mouthpiece with his hand.  "It's just the daycare center downstairs,"
he whispered.

Soon, however, his face grew serious.  "No, I absolutely did not," he
said into the phone.  "Well, who was it?  What did she look like?  No, you
did the right thing.  We'll be right down."

Lois gripped her husband's shirt sleeve as Clark hung up the phone.  "Oh my
God,
what's wrong?  Is Laura OK?"

Clark put a reassuring hand on her shoulder.  "Laura is fine.  She's taking
a nap."

"Then what happened??  Your hand clenched so tight I thought you were going
to crush the phone."

Clark stood up and pulled his suit jacket off the back of his chair.
"Laura is fine.  But someone--a woman--just tried to claim her, telling
the staffers that I told her to bring her upstairs to me.   When they
wouldn't let her in, she got angry and left."

Lois jumped up and grabbed her purse.  "I'm right behind you."

*****

Lois and Clark walked as fast as they could across the lobby and into the
daycare center.  What they encountered were three very shaken child care
providers, including Ruth Wilson, the director.

"Oh, Lois, Clark, I'm so glad you're here," Ruth told them as soon as they
met in the hall.  "Laura is fine--she never even woke up from her nap --
but we are all pretty upset, as you can imagine."

"Ruth, what happened?"  Lois was still trembling somewhat, but had calmed
significantly after checking the crib to ensure that Laura was indeed
sleeping peacefully.

Ruth swallowed and took them over to another young woman.  "Susan was in
the infant room when the woman came in.  I'll let her fill you in on the
first part."

Susan spoke very quickly, obviously still excited.  "I was across
the room, giving a bottle to one of the other babies, when she came in.
She didn't give a name, but she said she was here to pick up Laura Kent.
I told her that she wasn't on our authorized list to pick up Laura, and
asked why neither of you was doing it.   She was really nice at first,
telling me that you, Mr. Kent, had asked her to pick up the baby and take
her to you.  She said you were working really hard and needed her help.
When she started to come into the room, I got nervous--I'm  not sure why,
but I just didn't believe her.  I told her that unless Mr. Kent contacted
us directly authorizing it, we wouldn't release Laura to her."

Ruth Wilson interrupted.  "This is where I walked in.  Like Susan said, the
woman was very nice at first, but kept insisting that Clark wanted her to
have the baby.  When I told her that only Mr. and Mrs. Kent were allowed to
remove Laura from the center and I suggested that we go into my office to
call upstairs, she got upset and left."

Clark exhaled a shaky breath.  "Have you ever seen her before?  What did
she look like?"

"She seemed young, but it was hard to tell because she had on dark glasses
and a silk scarf over her head, covering her hair," Ruth offered.

"How young?" Clark pressed.

"In her twenties, probably.  Pretty.  She was dressed professionally."

"I could see some dark hair sticking out from the scarf," Susan piped up,
trying to be helpful.

Lois and Clark knitted their brows.  That description was more than they
had before, but it was still too vague to be really helpful.

"Oh, I wish we had a security camera," Ruth fretted.  "Neither of us had
ever seen her before, but maybe if we had a picture, one of you might
recognize her.  She was so nice at first, but when she got upset, she made
me nervous.  And she said the strangest thing."

"What did she say--exactly?"

Ruth paused, collecting her thoughts.  "She said ... let me make sure I say
it exactly the way she said it ... Oh, I know.  When I told her that only
Mr. and Mrs. Kent were allowed to take the baby, she snapped that she 'was
the future Mrs. Kent'.  And then she stormed out.  The future Mrs. Kent!
What in the world could that mean??"

Lois and Clark just looked at each other.   They knew exactly what it
meant. Their stalker wasn't giving up--and was definitely getting more
aggressive.

*****

ACT THREE

*****

At 11 o'clock Thursday morning, Lois Lane was lying on the floor of her
living room, looking up at an overhead play gym with her daughter.

"So this is what things look like from down here, huh?" she mused.  Laura
squealed with laughter as Lois batted toys with her.  It wasn't every day
Mommy stuck her head under the play gym!

Lois and Clark had worried all night about taking Laura back to daycare
this morning.  They trusted Ruth Wilson and the rest of the staff--if they
didn't, they never would have left Laura there in the first place--but this
latest encounter with their 'stalker' had them both really spooked.

They had left for home a couple hours after it happened yesterday, as soon
as Laura woke up from her afternoon nap and Lois and Clark could wrap up a
few small stories they needed to get done by deadline.  The only way Lois
could go back to the newsroom at all was because Clark assured her he would
keep his super-hearing tuned to the Center for the rest of the afternoon.

Laura, fortunately, was the only one not shaken by the experience.  The
staffers were stressed, Lois and Clark were stressed--heck, the stalker was
probably stressed because she hadn't gotten the baby--but Laura was as
happy as a lark.

Clark had convinced Ruth and Susan to meet with one of the Daily Planet
artists to come up with a composite drawing, but the resulting picture
wasn't tremendously helpful.  Not trained to remember details--and still
being upset about the entire incident--about all Ruth and Susan could agree
on was that the woman was of average height and build, was somewhere
between 20 and 35, and had either brown or black hair.  Not much to go on.

In the end, Lois had decided to use this as her day off for the week.
Clark had wanted to stay home, too, but they decided one of them should be
at work in case anything developed further.   Tomorrow, depending on how
things went today, Clark would stay home while Lois went to work.   They
hadn't alerted Perry or anyone else in the newsroom about the incident
yet--it seemed half the newsroom was out sick yesterday with the bad flu
virus that had been going around, including Perry.   Besides, they knew the
news would spread like wildfire once the Center alerted the other parents
to the fact that a suspicious person tried to claim one of the children.

As Laura started to fuss, finally growing bored with the colorful hanging
toys that were swinging above her, Lois pushed the gym away and moved Laura
to a sitting position in the middle of the floor.  "Here you go, sweetie,"
she said as she scattered some of Laura's favorite toys around her.  "Now
you play while Mommy gets some work done."

Laura protested the loss of her mother briefly, but was soon engrossed in
gumming the ear of a large plastic teddy bear.

Lois took the opportunity to straighten up the room a bit, then settled
down at the coffee table with the files she had brought from work.   Clark
had left her the sign-in sheet he obtained, and she'd been making some
progress cross-checking the list of murder victims against the list of 1994
Luthor auction goers.  She had already found two more names that were on
both lists, and was hopeful that she could eventually establish a pattern.

It was tedious work--hundreds and hundreds of people had turned out in 1994
for the auction and they didn't always sign in with full names and
addresses.   It wasn't necessarily unheard of that a few of them would meet
with random violence, but Lois felt there was more to be learned.  Of
course, there were still many murder victims that hadn't been anywhere near
the Luthor auction in 1994, which contradicted her theory of a connection,
but Lois knew she had to keep looking.

The phone rang on the desk and Lois tensed as she looked at it.  They had
already turned the ringer off in their bedroom to avoid the late-night
prank calls, but it was getting so every time her phone rang, she dreaded
answering it.  "How about we just let the machine get it, OK?" she asked
Laura with mock cheerfulness.

Laura didn't disagree.

After waiting through the series of clicks that signaled the answering
machine picking up, Lois rose quickly as she heard Clark voice on the line.
"Hi, honey, it's me.  Just calling to check up on my girls ... are you
there?"

"It's Daddy, Laura!"  Lois picked up the phone.  "Hi, Clark, I'm here."

"Were you busy with something?"

"No," Lois sighed.  "Just making sure who it was before picking up, that's
all."

"Well, that sounds like a good idea," Clark concurred.  "So, how's it going
over there.  Any problems?"

"No," Lois said, this time with real cheerfulness.  "We've been having a
nice morning.  Laura took a short morning nap, so we've been playing a lot.
She's in a great mood." Suddenly Lois laughed out loud.  "Oh, Clark! I wish
you could see her right now.  She's got herself on all fours and is trying
to crawl.  But she can't quite get her legs and arms to work in tandem.
Oh, this is so funny!"

Clark laughed heartily.  "She was doing that this weekend, too.  She's so
close though. Any day now she's going to take off, I just know it!"  They
chatted for a few more minutes about Laura's morning, then Clark grew more
serious.  "So, everything has been fine over there?  No more letters or
deliveries?"

Lois grew more sober as well.  "No, not that I know of.  I checked the mail
a little while ago but it hadn't come yet.  I didn't see any packages or
anything."

"But you're keeping the doors locked, right?"

Something about the way he asked the question caught Lois's attention.
"Yes, of course.  What's going on, Clark?   Did you get something?"  At
Clark's hesitation, Lois's heart sunk.  "Oh no, what now?"

Clark lowered his voice, and Lois could picture him at his desk, trying to
keep the conversation private.  "There was a cassette tape in the Jeep this
morning."

Lois's voice, in contrast, went up.  "What do you mean, *in* the Jeep??"

"Now, calm down, honey.  I must have forgotten to lock the door when we got
home yesterday.  Nothing was damaged.  But there was a cassette tape of
love songs waiting for me.   It was already in the player and started up as
soon as I started the car."

Lois growled.  "What kind of love songs?"

"A whole bunch of them ... ten all together.  I wrote down all the titles
and artists and I'm trying to come up with a pattern, if there even is one.
Some are new songs, some are old.  I even looked for anagrams based on the
letters, hoping maybe there was a clue to this woman's identity.  Nothing,"
he finished, a little disheartened.

"Were their any fingerprints on the cassette?"

"Yeah, and I took it down to Henderson a little while ago.  He's adding the
information to the complaint we filed yesterday after she tried to take
Laura, but he said their computer didn't have the fingerprints on file.
Whoever she is, she doesn't have a criminal record."

"Oh, that's a relief," Lois said sarcastically.  "A rookie stalker; that
makes me feel so much better."

Clark chuckled a bit despite himself.  "Hey, at least we can rule out Mrs.
Bailey from Social Services.  Last I checked, she was older than 30 and
doesn't look anything like that picture."

"Yeah," Lois said reluctantly, "I guess that's something.  But it doesn't
get us any closer to finding out who is doing this."  Suddenly, she thought
of something else.  "Clark, are you *sure* you left the Jeep door unlocked
last night?"

"No, I usually lock it when we park on the street.  But there were no signs
of forced entry, so how else could she have gotten in?"

Lois forced herself not to shudder--it was bad enough this woman knew where
they lived and had obviously been right outside last night--but the next
possibility was terrifying.  "What if she has a copy of our keys?  She
obviously knows where we work.  Maybe she borrowed our keys when we weren't
around.  She could have gone through my purse or through your jacket
pocket, made copies of our keys and returned them before we even noticed
they were gone."   Lois swallowed hard and looked at her daughter playing
happily on the floor.   Maybe keeping Laura at home wasn't the safest idea
after all ...

Clark took a deep breath.  "Or maybe I just left the car door unlocked ...
but you're right, it's better to be safe than sorry.  I think someone in
the newsroom would notice a stranger going through your purse, but I do
sometimes leave my keys in my pocket when my suit jacket is on the back of
my chair--"  Clark cut off abruptly, then continued in a hurried voice.
"Look, honey, I've gotta fly ... put the chain on the door as soon as you
hang up, OK?  And if you need help, just yell for Superman. We'll both be
there right away.  Love you!  Bye!"

Lois smiled weakly into the phone.  "Love you too.  Be careful."  As she
hung up the phone, she turned to her daughter.  "Well,  Laura, it's just
you and me again. Daddy had to go save the world."  She turned her
attention to the front door.  "Now, about that chain ..."

Lois walked over to the door and looked out the peephole almost fearfully
before sliding the chain into place.  It wasn't a heavy chain--just your
standard run of the mill door chain.  Would it keep out someone who was
intent on getting in?  Probably not, but it would give Lois enough of a
warning to yell for Superman.  That is, if this woman was even violent ...
she hadn't been so up until now.    Sure, she tried to take Laura, but
maybe she really was going to take her to Clark....

Lois snorted.  "Yeah, right," she answered herself.

Lois crossed the room, intent on returning to her files, when suddenly she
heard a noise in the foyer.  She froze.

She quickly looked to the front door and listened.  Silence.  Curious and
apprehensive, Lois walked carefully to the front windows.  She slowly drew
back the curtains and peered out.  The mailman was walking past their
house, and Lois realized that the sound she'd heard was the mail being
dropped through their mail slot.

Lois let her breath out in a rush and smiled.  "Laura, your Mommy is *way*
too on-edge.  I really need to relax."

Now, of course, Lois had a dilemma.  With the flower delivery and the
letter that had been delivered in the mail this week, Lois wasn't exactly
looking forward to seeing if there was another.  Not to mention the fact
that she would have to unchain the door to get the mail.

Finally, however, her curiosity--and her refusal to let this woman
win--made up Lois's mind. She carefully unchained the door and looked
around the foyer.  Satisfied that no one was around, Lois scooped up the
mail from where the mail carrier had deposited it and ran back into the
house.   Once inside, Lois slammed the door and quickly locked and chained
it.  Her heart was pounding like she had just run a marathon, and Laura was
watching her, decidedly amused at her mother's antics.

"Oh, you think that's funny, do you?" she clucked at her baby.  At Laura's
gurgle, Lois smiled too, albeit more nervously.  "I know, I know ... I'm
being silly ... but having you around makes me more cautious.   Good thing
Daddy didn't know that--he probably would have insisted we start trying to
have you on our honeymoon!"   Lois laughed for real that time, her mind
flooding with the memory of just how many babies they might have made in
those early months, had they not been using birth control!

Still chuckling, Lois sorted through the mail.  She was relieved to see
none of the typewritten envelopes they had received before.   Just bills,
magazines and junk mail.   Lois never thought she'd be so happy to see junk
mail!

A sudden noise in the street caught her attention, however, and she was
quickly back to feeling uneasy.  She looked at the chain, confirming it was
still there, but still not convinced about how strong it would be.

Considering her options, Lois started to move a near-by bench to the area
in front of the door.  Quickly thinking better of it, though, she dashed
into the dining room, and emerged with a solid looking high-backed chair in
her hands.   "This oughta do the trick!" she explained to Laura.

Laura just rolled over to her back, took her socks off, and worked intently
on getting her toes into her mouth.   "Glad you agree," Lois responded.

Lois angled the chair in front of the door, trying to wedge the high back
under the doorknob.  She had no idea if this actually worked, but she'd
seen it in the movies lots of times!  It was harder than it looked,
however, and she struggled with it for several moments before she got the
chair to stay in place.

She had just bent over to make some final adjustments to the set-up when a
loud knock on the door rang out next to her ear.  Lois yelped--loudly.

"Lois?  Lois, is that you?!  Is everything OK?"

With a look of disbelief on her face, Lois collected herself and looked
through the peephole.  "MOTHER??"

She struggled with the chair once again--this time to remove it--then
fumbled with the chain and the locks.   As she worked, she muttered to
herself, "Too bad the stalker isn't locked in here--it's harder to get out
than in!"

Finally she flung open the door, trying to act nonchalant as she leaned on
the dining room chair.  "Mother! What are you doing here?" she asked weakly.

Ellen Lane pushed her way past her daughter into the entryway.  "What do
you mean 'what am I doing here'?"  she asked, sounding miffed.  "Can't I
stop by to see my own granddaughter?"  She offered Lois a quick kiss on the
cheek as she took off her coat and shoved it into Lois's arms.   "Lois,
dear, I'm not one to criticize, but why do you have a dining room chair in
your entryway?"

Lois opened her mouth to respond, but Ellen had already made a bee-line for
the living room.  With a dramatic change in her tone of voice, Ellen
started chattering happily to her granddaughter as she picked her up off
the floor.

Lois closed the door once more, locking the deadbolt and reattaching the
chain.  She whimpered quietly, "Help, Superman!"

*****

Lois moved around her kitchen, making sandwiches for herself and her
mother.  Ellen, for her part, was trying to spoon some rice cereal into
Laura's mouth.  "Open up for Grandma, my precious girl," she cooed, then
caught the cereal on Laura's chin with the spoon as it ran down.

As Ellen mopped up Laura's cheeks for the umpteenth time, she set down the
spoon.  "I swear, Lois, by eight months, you were gobbling up everything in
sight!   Are you sure Laura isn't sick?  She acts like she's never had
solid foods before."

Lois spread the mustard on the bread more roughly.  Why was it that Martha
could make a statement and it would sound conversational, but when her
mother said the same thing, it sounded like an attack on her parenting
skills?  "That's because doctors 30 years ago started babies on cereal at
four weeks old, Mother!  Now they advise waiting until four to six months.
Laura has been getting all she needs from me.  We only started her on
solids a month and a half ago, and she's not wild about that cereal unless
it has fruit in it.  I think Clark bought some baby food jars of carrots at
the store this weekend ... do you want me to get you some of those?"

Ellen waved her off.  "No, no, don't go to any trouble on my account.  I
wasn't criticizing, Lois, my goodness!  Why are you always so defensive?
I'm starting to think you don't trust me to baby-sit Laura anymore.
Heavens knows you haven't invited me over in weeks!"

Lois closed her eyes and counted to ten.   She plastered a smile on her
face and delivered the food to the table.  "Mother,"  she explained,
mustering as much patience as she could.  "It's not that we don't trust you
to baby-sit Laura.  It's just that we worked hard to get the daycare center
open at the Planet.  They do a wonderful job with her, and with it right
downstairs, we can visit whenever we have time."  Lois flashed on the
incident yesterday, but she knew that this definitely was not the time to
mention it.  There was no sense in upsetting her already upset mother.  She
decided to change the subject.  "So what's new with you?"

That was all the encouragement her mother needed.  "Maybe you should ask
your father that,"  Ellen retorted, her voice dripping with sarcasm.  "Or
maybe a better question for him would be, 'Who' is new for you?  With all
the late hours he's been working recently, I'm sure he's working late on
his new young secretary."

"Well, have you talked to Daddy about it?  What does he say?"

"Oh, he denies it; he says I'm being paranoid.  But then he doesn't call
when he says he will or stands me up altogether.  Then he claims he was
just 'lost in his work'.  Like I believe that!"

Lois sighed.  "Maybe he really is working late.  It doesn't necessarily mean--"

"Well, what else could it mean?"  Ellen interrupted.  "That's what it meant
all those years when you were growing up."  She waved her hands in
exasperation.  "I was crazy to think that we could get back together.  Men
are all the same."

"Please, Mother, let's not start this again,"  Lois groaned.

Ellen went on as if she hadn't even heard her.  "You should keep a tight
leash on that husband of yours, Lois.  Clark may seem like a saint now, but
I'll tell you, they definitely don't stay that way.  Someday a younger
woman will fawn all over him while all you do is ask him to take out the
garbage.  It's when the spark is gone that you see what a man is really
made of!"

*****

Lex Luthor sat at his desk, brooding.  Sheets of paper filled with columns
of numbers lay spread out in front of him, and he stared at them, his brow
furrowed, reflecting his obvious disapproval.

A quiet knock on the door announced his wife's arrival into the room.
"Hello, darling," Beth called softly.  Seeing Lex crouched over his desk,
she wrapped her arms around his neck from behind.  With her cheek pressed
against his, she could clearly see the bold figures at the bottom of each
column.  They didn't look good.

"Lex, you've been in here almost all day.  I know you're upset, but sitting
in here alone isn't going to help.  Sometimes taking some time away from
home clears a person's mind.   How about we go away together?"

Lex dismissed the suggestion out of hand.  "Impossible.  I have far too
much work to do."

"Well, maybe I can help you with it.   Sometimes bouncing a problem off of
someone else can lead to greater insight."

Lex narrowed his eyes.  "Darling, don't take this the wrong way," he said
caustically, "but you're a librarian.  What insight could you possibly shed
on my work?"  Lex waved a hand towards the door derisively.  "Why don't you
go ... read a book or something."

Beth stiffened at this cruel jab.  She reminded herself for the millionth
time that she knew what she was getting into when she married him.  The
happy moments she had with Lex were in some ways the most dangerous--they
enticed her to let her guard down, make her dream about a safe and loving
partnership.   But the more she learned about him, the more she knew that
it was never to be.

She set her jaw.  "Lex, about last night ..."  Beth let her voice trail
off, as if unsure of whether or not to continue.  "You shouldn't feel bad.
It happens to all men sometimes."

Beth was about to say more, but the look on Lex's face told her she was
already too far into dangerous territory.   She instantly backed off,
quickly removing her arms from his neck.  She straightened and moved
towards the door.  "If you need me, I'll be in the bedroom ... reading a
book."

Beth closed the door quickly behind her, her heart pounding.  She knew the
last comment came out a little too sarcastically for safety, but it
couldn't be helped now.   As she passed the library, she decided to pick up
the book she had begun reading a few weeks ago.  It was outside of her
normal area of interest, but it was proving quite fascinating.  "Ah, here
we are," she whispered to herself as she combed the shelves.  "The Art of
War ..."

*****

Lois Lane sat on the couch, enjoying a few moments of peace and quiet.
After lunch, her mother had insisted on being the one to put Laura down for
her afternoon nap, and Lois didn't protest.  The best side of Ellen Lane
came out when she was with her granddaughter, and Lois was only too happy
to encourage *that* Ellen when her mother was visiting.

Lois turned as she heard her mother's quiet footsteps on the stairs.  "Did
she go down OK?" Lois asked softly.

"Oh, yes," Ellen responded with a tender smile.  "Like a little angel.  She
reminds me so much of you when you were a baby, Lois.  With that dark hair
and those bright, curious eyes.   She's definitely your daughter."

Lois smiled.  "Martha says she looks like Clark.  I think grandparents
delight in looking for those similarities as much as parents do."

"Well, Laura is a lucky girl to have both sets of grandparents so involved
in her life.  I hope you keep that good relationship with the Kents.  I
know after your father and I split up, it was difficult to see your
grandparents on that side of the family.  Things were just so awkward."

Lois sighed in exasperation.  "Mother, for the last time, Clark and I are
not going to split up!"

Ellen looked at her daughter in shock.  "I never said you were!  All I was
saying is--"

"I *know* what you're saying.   I just don't share your opinion.  Not all
men cheat."  Lois poured two cups of tea from the teapot waiting on the
coffee table.  "I know that some men are unfaithful, but Clark's not like
that.  He never will be."

Her mom sighed.  "I hope so, Lois.  I hope what you're saying is true.  I'd
just hate to see what happened to me and your father happen to you and
Clark."

For the briefest of moments, the sight of Clark joking with Kate Martin in
the Daily Planet's lobby flashed into Lois's mind.  As quickly as they
came, however, she dismissed the images.    Smiling reassuringly, Lois
handed her mother a cup of tea.

"Mother, with all the problems we've had--our dating troubles, my being
kidnapped on our wedding day, being framed for murder--most people wouldn't
have blamed Clark for running in the opposite direction.  But he stuck by
me through everything.  And he always will.  I think if you'd open yourself
to that possibility, you would know that every time you see us look at each
other.  I trust Clark implicitly.   He would never betray me."

*****

Lex slammed down the phone in his office.  The insurance company was
"opening an investigation" into the incomplete paperwork, but so far their
lawyers were claiming that at most the company was only minimally liable
because they hadn't noticed the paperwork was incomplete when they'd
accepted it.   The insurance company would be making a settlement offer to
keep things out of court, but the offer would be but a fraction of what Lex
had lost on the deal.

Of course, he could fight it, and would do so, but it would be months, if
not years before he would see any cash.

"Ten million dollars," he muttered in disgust.  "Ten million dollars."

*****

"Lois?" Clark called out as soon as he returned home from work.  "Are you
here?"

"I'm in Laura's room,"  Lois called back.  "I didn't hear you come home."

A whirring noise caught her attention, and within seconds, her husband was
standing in the doorway.  "I flew in the window," he grinned.  "You had the
chain on the door."

Lois gave him a kiss hello from where she stood, her hands occupied with
keeping a squirming baby on the changing table.  "You're lucky you weren't
here earlier--I was considering erecting a furniture barricade around the
door."

Clark leaned over to give Laura a kiss on the forehead, distracting her
long enough for Lois to finish snapping the baby's pants.  When he raised
his head,  he looked concerned.  "Did something happen?  Why didn't you
call--"

Lois shook her head quickly, stopping him.  "No, nothing more happened ...
I was just feeling paranoid after you told me about the tape, that's all.
Did you hear anymore from the police?"

Clark picked up Laura and blew a raspberry on her cotton-covered tummy.  As
they played, Clark filled Lois in.  "No, but I talked to the daycare
center.  They're still pretty upset, but I'm impressed by how proactive
they're being.  I guess Ruth was concerned that parents might pull their
kids out of the center, so she was all prepared this morning with a plan
for increasing security.   They're tightening up their access restrictions,
and talking with building security about getting a camera installed inside
their front door."

It was Lois's turn to look alarmed.  "They're really worried parents might
pull their kids out?  Clark, after all I went through to get that center
started, I can't believe it could close!"

"I think it's going to be all right," he reassured her.   "I talked to a
few of the parents today, and they all told me they still support the
center and aren't planning to leave.   You know, I was going to take
tomorrow off, but now I'm wondering if maybe we should take her in, just to
show that we trust the center.   Don't get me wrong--I wouldn't leave Laura
there for one second if I thought she would be in danger--but with the
increased security and the staff on alert, I feel pretty confident Laura
will be safe there."

"I'm glad to hear you say that.  I think we should both go in tomorrow,
too.  I really want to find out who is doing this so we can stop it.  And
as much as I love being home with Laura, I can't get much investigating
done during the day while I'm here."

"Then it's settled.  All three of us will go the Planet tomorrow."

"I like the idea of us all being in the same building," Lois admitted.
"But I still plan on keeping an extra close eye on her just in case."

Clark took her hand and squeezed it.  "That makes two of us."

*****

"Hey, Chief, can we talk to you?"  Clark knocked on the open door to his
editor's office Friday morning, announcing his presence.

Perry looked up.  "Yeah, Clark, Lois, come on in.  I'm just trying to catch
up with what's been going on around here this week.  I swear, I can't
remember the last time I was sick enough to take two days off in a row."

"How are you feeling, Perry?" Lois inquired, sitting down on the couch.

"I've been better, darlin' ... I've got three reporters out with this bug
in the city section alone, and the other section editors are dealing with
the same problem."  He sighed.  "So, I take it you're here to fill me in on
your stories?"

Clark shook his head.  "Actually, we're not.   We've had a little situation
come up this week and we need to make you aware of it."

Perry raised his eyebrows and sat back in his chair expectantly.  "I'm all
ears ..."

Just then Jimmy Olsen rushed through the door.  "Hey, Chief, you'll never
guess what--"

"Jimmy!" the older man thundered.  "Can't you see I'm talking with Lois and
Clark?"

Jimmy shifted his feet awkwardly.  "I'm sorry, guys.  I'll come back."

Clark put up a hand to stop him.  "No, Jimmy, I'd like you to hear this, too."

Lois spoke up, directing her words at both Perry and Jimmy.  "We've been
having some disturbing things happen the last several days.  At first, we
thought it was just a prank, but it's become clear to us that someone is
targeting us directly.  Or more accurately, targeting Clark."

"At first it was just a lot of phone hang-ups, but over the weekend, we
started getting deliveries," Clark continued.

"One of the guys you put in jail harassing you again?" Jimmy asked.

Clark hesitated and looked at Lois.  "I hadn't thought of that ... you
think someone is making all of this up, just to harass us?"

Lois looked doubtful.  "Anything is possible, but it doesn't feel like
that."  She turned back to Perry.  "It started this weekend.  Clark got
flowers delivered to him at our house, along with a romantic note.  Then I
got an anonymous letter, telling me Clark didn't love me and that he was
planning to leave me.  And yesterday morning, someone left a cassette tape
of love songs in our car for Clark to find when he went to work.  But the
most disturbing thing happened Wednesday afternoon.  A woman tried to claim
Laura from the daycare center downstairs, telling the staff that she was
'the future Mrs. Kent' and Clark wanted her to have the baby."

Perry and Jimmy's jaws dropped open as Lois summarized their harassment.
"You've gotta be kidding!  That's awful!" Jimmy exclaimed.

Perry's brow furrowed.  "Do you have any idea who's doing this?"

Clark shook his head.  "No, I wish we did.  Until Wednesday, we just
figured someone was harassing us by trying to make it look like I was
having an affair.  But after she--whoever she is--tried to take Laura, we
filed a police report.   This obviously is more serious than someone just
trying to play mind games."

"Where is Laura now?" Perry asked, concerned.

"She's downstairs in the Center," Lois admitted.  "You were out sick,
Perry, or you would have heard.  I stayed home with Laura yesterday, but
Clark talked with Ruth Wilson and we're confident they are being alert to
any problems.  Security is keeping an extra tight watch on the lobby and
the Center in particular."

"And *we're* keeping close tabs on things, too," Clark added, putting a
supportive hand on Lois's shoulder.  "But unfortunately, we haven't been
able to come up with anyone who might be doing this.  There were finger
prints left on the cassette tape, but no matches in the police computer.
And all we have is a general description of the person who tried to claim
Laura."

"And whoever it is knows where we live and where we work," Lois added.

Jimmy's eyes opened wide.  "Do you think it's someone here?" he asked,
looking behind him to scan the newsroom.

Clark shook his head.  "No, I don't think--"

"Well, actually ..." Lois started.

Just then Jimmy turned back to the room.  "Hey, I almost forgot what I came
in here to tell you!" he exclaimed.  "If it is someone here, this would
make perfect sense!"

"Jimmy, you're talking in riddles," Perry said gruffly.  "Spit it out."

"I was just down in research pulling some files when Dick Cooper comes
barreling out of the room where the archived papers are kept.  He was about
to call you himself but since I was coming this way anyway, I told him I'd
let you know.   Someone got into the morgue last night and damaged a whole
bunch of old newspapers.   Articles had been cut out all over the place."

Clark, Lois and Perry all exchanged looks.  "Um, and exactly what does this
have to do with us?" Lois asked him, a little impatiently.

Jimmy gave her a look right back.  "I'm getting to that!   When Dick and
his staff started to catalog exactly what was missing, they discovered a
pattern."  Jimmy paused for effect, knowing he had everyone's attention
now.  "They were almost all articles that Clark had written."

"That *I* had written?" Clark exclaimed, incredulous.  "This person cut out
every single article I've written in six years?!?"

"No, not everything," Jimmy detailed.  "It seemed to be mostly the big
feature stories.  They also took stories by other writers that were about
you, like when you were shot by those gangsters and Superman brought you
back to life, or when Lex Luthor kidnapped Lois when you guys were supposed
to be getting married."

"My God!"  Lois exclaimed.  "Whoever is doing this is really serious about
their obsession for you, Clark!"

Clark stared at the floor for a long moment, lost in thought.  Finally he
looked up, his face determined.  "Jimmy, will you please call around to the
libraries and the other papers in town and ask if they've had any similar
problems?  Let's get a better idea of what we're dealing with here."

*****

Jimmy reported back to Lois and Clark later that morning.  He found them in
their usual spots in the newsroom.  "Well, I've got some news," he said,
leaning against the corner of Clark's desk with a notepad in his hand.  "I
talked to the Metropolis Star, the New Troy Herald, and even the Metropolis
County Weekly Journal.  None have had reports of any problems.  However,
three of the six branches of the Metropolis Public Library *have*.  They
were very surprised when I called.  Turns out they hadn't even looked for a
pattern to the missing articles when I contacted them, but they took a
closer look and cross-referenced with micro-filmed copies, and sure enough,
they all involved either Lois or Clark."

Clark looked alarmed.  "Lois?  Why Lois?"

Jimmy looked back and forth between them, looking suddenly uncomfortable.
"Um, those were the tabloid articles that were missing.  All that stuff
about Lois when she had amnesia?  When she was with Lex Luthor, and then
that Doctor Deter?"

"Oh, wonderful," Lois snapped sarcastically.  "She's probably trying to
amass evidence that I'm not good enough for you."

"Well, she's not ever going to prove that," Clark countered emphatically.

Lois turned to Jimmy.  "Out of curiosity, which three branches of the
library were affected?"

Jimmy gave a little smile.  "The three closest to the Daily Planet."

"Why am I not surprised?" Lois shook her head in disgust, then looked
thoughtful.

Clark sat up a bit straighter.  "You look like you suspect someone here,
too, like Jimmy does."

Lois looked at her husband.  "Well, there is one person that you haven't
considered.  She showed up in town last week, just as all this started.
And shematches the description Ruth gave us."

"Who?"

Lois lowered her voice, looking around to see who was in earshot.  "Kate."

"Kate Martin?"  Clark looked stunned.  "I can't believe that.  She's just a
kid."

Jimmy raised an eyebrow to his friend.  "That's not exactly the impression
I got."

"Why, did she say something to you?"

"No, no ... just, you know, look at her!"  Jimmy made some general motions
with his hands.  "She's no kid."

Clark defended himself.  "I didn't mean that exactly, but she and I were
friends.  She was like my little sister or something."

Lois turned to Clark.  "Trust me, Clark.  I've seen the way she looks at
you.  Her thoughts are far from that of an adoring sibling."

Clark sat back in his chair, his mind working overtime.  Kate would match
the general description the daycare workers provided.  But so would Lois,
or any number of women in the building.  "Is Kate here today?  Maybe we can
bring Ruth Wilson up here to see if she recognizes her."

Jimmy pulled a piece of paper from the notepad he was carrying.  "I have
the list of who called in sick from all the departments.  I need to give it
to Perry."  He consulted it, then showed it to his two colleagues.  "Kate
Martin ... left at 2:00 Wednesday afternoon saying she didn't feel well,
then called in sick the last two mornings.

*****

Kate Martin sat on the floor in the middle of her living room surrounded by
several large overfilled albums.  Her eyes were bloodshot and her face was
pale.  She'd been working hard to update her scrapbooks for the last two
days, and the lack of sleep was evident in her appearance and movements.

With a tired but satisfied sigh, Kate leaned back against the couch and
picked up the album closest to her.  She fingered the gold embossing on the
cover before opening it.  A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth and
she gave a happy sigh.  The long hours had been worth it.  It wouldn't be
so hard from now on ... they would subscribe to the paper and she wouldn't
have to find back issues anymore.

Kate reached out to trace an index finger along the jawline of the man in
the photograph on the first page.  He looked so handsome in the photo,
dressed in a black tuxedo, holding his Kerth Award.   He was so talented,
but she had known that all along.  Others may have doubted it--he even
doubted himself sometimes--but she had always known.

With a soft smile, Kate picked up a framed photograph lying on the floor
next to her.   This one was of the two of them.  It was taken nearly nine
years ago, but he was just as handsome and talented then.   They were
smiling broadly in the photo, him at his desk, her in the chair in front of
it.   They were obviously in love.  She could see it in his eyes.

Kate leafed through the pages of the books she had created, studying the
articles.  She hoped he would forgive her for missing so much of his life,
but she knew in her heart he couldn't really be angry with her.   He loved
her!  It was in his voice, and in the hug he gave her when he saw her again
in the newsroom.   He had bought her coffee and told her how good she was
with his daughter.

He knew what a good wife and mother she'd make.

Her face clouding somewhat, Kate picked up another album.  Opening it, she
skimmed the articles until she found the one she was looking for.   She
sighed heavily, tears coming into her eyes.   His face in this photograph
was angry, hurt.   The headline and article explained why--the woman he
agreed to marry had run off with another man.

Kate turned the pages of the book, her face wet from her now flowing tears.
Names of men, many men, leapt from the pages.  Lex Luthor, Maxwell Deter,
Superman ... *she* had been with them all, all when she was supposed to be
loyal to him.  She didn't love him, not the way he deserved to be loved.
All she did was hurt him.

A sob escaped Kate's lips.  Her poor darling.  He married another woman
because Kate had left him.  It was a terrible mistake.  How horrible his
life must have been these many years without her.   She knew her life was
incredibly painful without him.  Love is like that.

And now here he was, trapped in a marriage to a woman who didn't deserve
him, didn't respect him with her fidelity.   Oh, he might claim he was
loyal to the marriage.  He was so honorable, and he would want to do the
right thing.  But Kate knew what was in his heart.

She smiled through her tears.  Ultimately, he would do the right thing, do
what was right for their love.   The bond they had was unbreakable, even
after all these years.  She knew he'd been thinking about her, wondering
about her.  She felt it.

It might take some time, time to break it to his wife, time to secure a
divorce.   Getting custody of his daughter for the two of them might prove
difficult, but they would persevere, as long as they had each other.  And
she could give him other children.

It was so hard not to pick up the phone to call him. She'd tried many
times, but his wife always answered the phone.  The first few times, Kate
had hung up because she was startled.  Later, she decided it would be cruel
to rub his wife's nose in the fact that her husband loved someone else.
Ultimately, however, Kate knew she had to be told.  That's when she sent
the letter.

Now that his wife was informed, certainly things would be easier.   Kate
had spent hours creating a tape that communicated everything the two of
them meant to each other.  Several of the songs were current, but others
were from nine years ago, "their songs".  Songs that were playing the night
they went out to eat and he poured his heart out to her, telling her all
his hopes and dreams and worries. The song they had danced to when the
staff went out to celebrate some forgettable accomplishment.  The song that
was playing on the radio the afternoon he had kissed her.

Surely now, after hearing the tape, he would come to her.  Kate would wait
for him to break it to his wife, and then he would come to her.

She looked at the photograph of the two of them again.  "I love you,
Clark," she whispered.

*****

The weekend passed quickly in the Kent household.  Laura was over her cold
and was ready to make up for lost playing time.  She was also eating more
than usual, maybe to make up for her diminished appetite last week.
Regardless, Lois and Clark were kept busy caring for their daughter and
enjoying some family time.

The elder Kents were still out of town, but had called to update Lois and
Clark on their current travels and itinerary.  Lois and Clark mentioned a
little about what was going on with their 'stalker' but they downplayed how
serious they were taking it, and didn't mention the daycare center incident
at all.

Clark did manage to casually bring up Kate Martin in conversation with his
parents.  Not mentioning his and Lois's concern that she might be his
pursuer, Clark tried to find out if Martha and Jonathan had heard anything
about her over the last nine years.  Unfortunately, they didn't know much
more than he did.  They remembered her--her late grandparents had owned a
farm north of town, and Kate used to summer in Smallville as a child.  That
was how Kate came to get a summer job with the Smallville Press following
her freshman year at the University of Kansas.  Back then, she lived with
her parents in Topeka when she wasn't in school, but Martha had lost track
of the family several years ago after her grandparents died.

Lois listened with interest as Clark reminisced with his parents about his
brief stint as Managing Editor of the Smallville Press.   Clark was all of
24 years old--no older than Jimmy--when he took the job.   He had been
traveling for two years overseas, trying to launch his freelance writing
career.  The only reliable source of income he'd been able to obtain--small
as it was--was from the Smallville Press, which would publish his travel
pieces.  Thus, when Jonah Simons, the elderly long-term editor of the
Press, went out on disability following a heart attack, Clark felt an
obligation to return to Smallville and fill in.

The job came at a perfect time--Clark had run out of money and had no other
immediate prospects for a paycheck.  Still, it was a difficult time for
him.  Clark returned home to take the job, claiming all the while it was
temporary and he was just helping out the paper while saving some money.
But he couldn't shake the feeling that he was coming back to Smallville
with his tail between his legs, a failure.  Several of his high school
friends were married with children by then, working to support their
families.  Yet after two years working as a professional writer, two years
after graduating from college, Clark still couldn't even support himself.

It was at the newspaper that Clark had met Kate Martin.  The age difference
between them--six years--and the limited time she spent in Smallville had
kept their paths from crossing before.  Clark vaguely remembered seeing her
play as a child while he was in high school, but he hadn't seen her in
years, and certainly wasn't expecting the pretty, smart 18 year old that
entered his office early that summer, reporting for the job Mr. Simons had
promised her before his illness.

Clark had put her to work, and was impressed by her writing skills and her
self-confidence.   Taking her under his wing, he tried to expose her to
many different areas of journalism, including what went into being an
editor.  When Kate left to begin her sophomore year that fall, Clark felt
that she would be an asset to any paper.

On the phone with his parents, Clark smiled wanly as his father wondered
out loud if Kate's experiences in Smallville made her decide to work
towards being an editor herself.

Over the weekend, Clark added more personal details about that summer to
Lois, things he hadn't wanted to mention while talking with his parents.
He admitted that Kate probably had a crush on him back then, but that he
hadn't pursued it, even though they got along quite well.  Still, though,
acting as her mentor hadn't been completely altruistic on his part.

Although Clark could see now that coming home for six months had been good
for him, at the time he'd been feeling very ambivalent.  His ego was
bruised, and he had started to doubt his own writing abilities.  He began
to wonder if he would ever leave Smallville again.  Through Kate, however,
Clark rediscovered how much he loved writing for the sake of writing, not
just as a means to a paycheck.

She had been an eager pupil, and as the summer wore on, Clark became her
mentor.  They spent long hours talking about writing and editing, and about
their common dream of working for a major newspaper.  Kate was pretty and
smart and talented--and ate up everything Clark said, which was a nice ego
boost for him at a time when he was doubting himself and his talent.   In
some way, this was just the stroking he needed to gather his confidence and
head back out into the "real world" again.

Lois sat quietly on the couch Sunday evening, cuddled in her husband's arms
as they discussed this period of Clark's life.  She had never heard this
much detail from him before about those six months in Smallville, and it
made her feel like she knew him even better.  Ironically, the year
coincided with a difficult period in her own life--the year that Claude,
the French journalist, seduced her, stole her story and skipped town.
Where Lois's bruised ego made her retreat further into herself and her
work, Clark's similar self-doubts made him seek out someone to encourage
him.  Lois felt this was very telling of their personalities, now and then.

"So, do you think Kate could be trying to rekindle the old romance?" she
finally asked, after Clark concluded his story.

"There wasn't any romance to rekindle, Lois," Clark defended.  "I mean, we
used to go out for ice cream sometimes, or coffee and apple pie at the
diner, but it wasn't like we were dating.  I think we went to a movie
together once the entire summer, and that was with a few other people.
Mostly we would just hang out in the office and talk."

Lois shook her head.  "I'm not saying you led her on, Clark.  And even if
you did, what's been going on is way more than a remembered crush from
nearly 10 years ago.   If it is Kate who's doing this, something else is
involved here."

"You think someone is putting her up to it?" Clark asked, remembering
Lois's half-joking comment about Lex Luthor trying to distract them from
their investigation.

"That," Lois replied, "or she's seriously deranged.  The letters and the
tape ... you'd think you'd been involved nine days ago, not nine years ago!"

"Well, it's been quiet all weekend, so maybe whoever it is has stopped.  We
haven't had one hang up call, I don't think.  No flowers, no tapes."  Clark
winked at Lois.  "Not even any chocolates."

Lois sat up a bit straighter.  "Hey, that's right ... she never sent
chocolates.  What kind of stalker is she?" Lois joked.  "Gee, too bad she
isn't calling right now.  You could tell her to add chocolates to the list,
but only the good kind--"

Lois was cut off by the ringing of the phone.  She and Clark stared at each
other, their eyes widening.

"I was just kidding," Lois whimpered.

"I know," Clark reassured her with a smile.  "It's probably not even her.
I'll get it."

Clark stood up and walked over to the desk where the phone sat.  Taking a
deep breath, he answered the phone on the third ring.  "Hello?"

There was no answer immediately on the other end of the line, but Clark
could hear breathing, so he repeated himself a little louder.  "Hello?"

Lois looked up at him questioningly.  Clark shook his head in frustration
and was about to hang up when a feminine voice reached his ear.

"Clark?  Is that you?"

"Yes, this is Clark ... who's this?"

"Oh, Clark, thank God I found you.  I was getting worried!"

Clark looked puzzled.  "Worried about what?" he asked hesitantly.

"So, how did it go when you told her?" the voice said with concern.  "Are
you almost done?  When are you coming over?  I thought you might have been
here by now."

Clark closed his eyes for a brief moment as his heart sunk.  He recognized
the voice now, and it was exactly as he had feared.  "Kate?  Is that you?"

"Well, of course, it's me, silly!" she laughed.  "Who else would know about
the conversation you are having with Lois right now?  So, are you going to
bring the baby when you come or not?  I don't have a lot of room here, but
we can go out tomorrow and buy some baby things, or maybe we can get a
hotel room for tonight--"

Clark's head was spinning.  "What?" he asked, bewildered.  "What are you
talking about?  And what conversation am I having with Lois?"  At the sound
of her name, Lois stood up in alarm and walked over to the phone.  She
stood at his elbow as he tilted the phone so she could listen.

The woman on the other end of the line also sounded confused.  "Didn't you
get the tape?  And didn't she get the letter?"  Her voice softened.   "I
know I should have let you tell her about us, darling, but I just couldn't
wait anymore!   I miss you so much.  I know how loyal you are, and how you
don't want to hurt her, but she just had to know.  I figured once she knew
the truth about us, then you could let her down easier."

Lois drew in an outraged breath, but Clark silenced her by raising his
finger.  "So you've been the one sending the letters ... and the flowers?"

"Well, of course, sweetheart!" Kate giggled.  Her voice suddenly got more
anxious.  "And the tape, you got the tape, right?  I spent so long getting
it just right ... it had all our songs in it.  Did you like the last one?
It's my favorite ... the one playing when we kissed the last time." The
final statement was said almost dreamily.

Clark was perplexed.  "Kissed?" he said helplessly.  "Kate, we didn't kiss.
We didn't date.  We were just friends.  I don't know why you're doing this,
but it has to stop."  His voice grew firm.  "It has to stop."

"But we love each other!   I know once Lois understands that, she won't
stand in our way.  If she doesn't contest the divorce, then we can be
married in six months!  Did you discuss little Laura with her?  Do you
think she'll let us keep her? She's such a wonderful baby; I love her so
much.  I really--"

Clark cut her off, this time getting angry.  "You stay away from Laura," he
ordered.  "How dare you try to pick her up at daycare?!  What were you
going to do with her, anyway?"

Kate sounded hurt, helpless over his outburst.  "I'm sorry, darling.
Please don't be mad.  I knew you were working hard and would need me to get
her.  I was going take her home and wait for you.  I figured once Lois got
the letter, you'd be able to explain things before leaving her, and this
way we could have Laura with us!"

Clark raised his voice as he got upset.  "Kate!  Listen to me!  There is no
us!  I am happily married to Lois.  I *love* Lois.  Only Lois."

"How can you say that?" the woman responded tearfully.  "You know we love
each other.  You're only saying that because Lois is there.  She's there,
isn't she?  Listening?"

Lois and Clark looked at each other, momentarily startled and concerned
that Kate might be able to see them.  It took them a second to realize Kate
had continued her outburst.

"Clark, please listen to me.  I know you feel you owe Lois something, but
you don't!  She doesn't deserve you.  She's hurt you terribly, I know.
She's gone off with other men, over and over again.  Lex Luthor and Maxwell
Deter and Superman ... she's never been faithful to you, Clark, but I will
be.  She'll do it again, hurt you again, just like she's done before.  But
I'll never hurt you, sweetheart!  I love you!"

"Why that little--" Lois muttered under her breath.

Clark found himself at a loss.  This wasn't the Kate Martin that he
remembered.  "Kate, listen to me," he said with less anger than before,
trying to placate her.   "You need help.  I don't know why are you doing
this but--"

"I just want us to be together, that's all," the woman pleaded. "I've
missed you so much, and it's been so awful without you.  I just know that
once we're together, everything will be OK again, for both of us."

"Kate, I'm *married*!"  he repeated.  "I love my wife and I have no
intention of leaving her for you or anyone else.  *Ever*."

Lois and Clark could hear the young woman sniffle, and they relaxed
slightly, thinking they finally got through to her.  But after a moment,
her voice came through more clearly, as if she had pulled herself together
and developed a new resolve.  "It's OK, Clark," she said calmly.  "I know
she's there and you can't say what you really feel.   But we both know the
truth.  Once Lois is out of the picture, you and I can raise Laura
ourselves.  I'll be a good wife and mother.  You'll see that soon.  Good
night, Clark.  I love you."

Clark's blood ran cold.  Talk of getting Lois "out of the picture" was
alarming, and even if Kate wasn't predicting violence, it was clear that
the harassment was not over.  "Kate! Wait!"  he called out.  "Where are you
calling from?"

The only response, however, was a click on the other end of the line, then
the dial tone.

Clark quickly set the phone down and before Lois knew what was happening,
he had spun into his Superman outfit.    "I've got to see if I can find
her.  I'll be back," he explained quickly.

Kissing his wife apologetically, Superman rocketed through the window and
into the sky in a blur of color.

*****

Clark returned a half hour later, frustrated.  Nothing.  Not knowing where
to look, he flew circles out from the townhouse, hoping that fate would
guide him to Kate Martin.  But he'd had no luck.  He was fairly confident,
however, that she wasn't near the townhouse, which made him a little more
secure that Lois wasn't in immediate danger.

Lois was in their bedroom, already in her robe.  "Anything?" she asked.

Clark shook his head and sat down on the bed.  "Nothing.  It doesn't look
like she's in the neighborhood, though, so hopefully she won't try anything
more tonight."

"Do you want to keep looking?"  Lois sat down on the edge of the bed next
to him.

Clark pulled his wife close and hugged her.  "No, honey, I want to be here
with you.  Barring a major emergency, I'm sticking close to home until we
can get this sorted out."

Lois hugged him back, then offered, "I called Information.  There's no
listing for a Kate Martin.  There were two K. Martins, but I called them
both and men answered, saying I had the wrong number.  I'm assuming that
she wouldn't have a man there to lie for her, if she's really doing this
for the reasons she said."

Clark sighed.  "I just don't understand!  She was a normal, bright person.
What happened to her?"

"I don't know," Lois whispered.  "But I'm sorry this is so upsetting to
you.  I'm glad we know who is doing this now, but I wish it wasn't someone
you had fond memories of."

Clark was silent for a long moment, looking down sadly.  "I guess the only
thing we can do is wait until tomorrow and try to track her down.  Maybe
she'll even show up at work.  If not, Personnel should have some contact
information for her, an address or phone number.  I'd like to see if we can
resolve this, to get her some help without involving the police, but I
don't want to take chances with your safety."

"I can take care of myself," Lois murmured supportively.  "Do what you have
to do."

Clark turned into her arms.  "I know you can, and you take care of me, too.
I don't know what I would do without you.  The idea that we might have
never met, or would break up ... that I would have to go through my life
without having you in it--"  His voice cracked.

Lois kissed him tenderly, running a hand soothingly through his hair.
"Shh, it's OK.  I'm here.  I love you and I'm not going anywhere."

Clark slowly lowered his wife to the bed, turning the tender kiss
passionate.  "I love you, Lois," he whispered huskily, emotionally.

"I love you, too, Clark."

They made love with an urgency they hadn't felt in a long time, each
needing to reassure themselves and each other that there was no threat to
their love.  For them, there could be no one else.

Still, they couldn't manage to shake the feeling that this was far from over.

*****

ACT FOUR

*****

Jimmy hadn't been in the newsroom ten minutes on Monday morning before
Clark collared him with a determined look on his face.

"Hey, CK, what's up?"

"Jimmy, I need everything you can get from Personnel on Kate Martin."

Jimmy's eyes bugged.  "You mean it *was* her?  Oh, geez, I can't believe
this!  She seemed so nice!"

Clark didn't look too happy.  "I know; I'm not wild about it myself, but I
need to find her.  Get me a photocopy of her contact forms if you can.  I
need everything--address, phone number, emergency contact information ..."

"All right, CK, but I'm not sure what I can get.  Sometimes those things
are confidential."

"Get Perry involved if you have to; I've already explained everything to
him.  But, Jimmy?  Don't tell anyone why you need the information.  I'd
like to see if we can resolve this without too much public humiliation, OK?"

Jimmy grinned.  "Humiliation for her--or you?"

Clark stilled, then looked at Jimmy seriously.  "I haven't done anything
wrong, Jimmy.  There is no affair, and Lois knows that.  I hope you do,
too."

Jimmy sobered quickly.  "I know; I was just ribbing you.  Where will you be
when I get back?"

Clark had already turned.  "If I'm not at my desk, look for me in Peggy
Lawrence's office, in the Lifestyle section.  I need to talk to her, see if
she's heard from Kate."

*****

Clark spent the next hour being jumpy and distracted.  Every time the
elevator opened, he looked carefully to see who was getting off of it.
Lois had an interview appointment this morning that she couldn't
reschedule, and he knew he'd feel better when she finally arrived back in
the newsroom safe and sound.  His super-hearing had been tuned into the
daycare center downstairs for any signs of unusual activity, but he took
frequent breaks to scan the air for Lois calling for help.  He heard none,
which made him feel a little better, but he knew he would get little done
until he could get this resolved.

His talk with Peggy Lawrence, the Lifestyle Section Editor, hadn't provided
Clark with much insight.   Kate had seemed like a good worker, but she'd
only put in two and a half days in last week before calling in sick.  Mrs.
Lawrence didn't think this too unusual, even though it was Kate's first
week on the job, because so many of her staff members had come down with
this terrible flu that had been going around.   Mrs. Lawrence had had it
herself last week, and so was being very understanding about sick days.

There was one piece of unexpected news, however.

"Actually, Clark," Peggy said as soon as he asked about Kate, "she left a
message on my voice mail this morning.  Kate quit.  She didn't give a
reason, just that she wouldn't be coming back."

"She quit?" Clark repeated.  "Oh, man."

Mrs. Lawrence shook her head.  "I know; I hate to lose her.  She was only
here a few days, but she had real talent.  She seemed like she was really
going to work out."   At Clark's disconcerted expression, she raised an
eyebrow.  "Was there something going on with you two?  Kate mentioned that
you were good friends ... and she did seem awfully interested in your
opinion."

Clark blew out a deep breath.  "We knew each other--she used to work for me
several years ago--but it's not what you think, or what she seemed to
think.  We have been having a ... situation ... though and I really need to
find her.  Do you have a phone number or address for her?"

Peggy opened her desk drawer.  "Well, let me see, I think I may have
something ... yes, here it is.  She filled out this contact information for
the staff list on Monday."

Clark looked at the index card and frowned.  "She listed a post office box
as her mailing address. She didn't mention where she was living?"

Peggy shook her head. "She said that she was going to be moving into a
nicer place soon, and would just be changing her address anyway, so she was
using the post office to collect her mail.  The phone number has been
disconnected--I tried calling her back as soon as I got the message that
she quit.  But no luck."

Clark clenched and unclenched his fists in frustration.  He was hitting
brick walls left and right.   "Thanks, Peggy, I appreciate the information.
If I find out anything more, I'll let you know, all right?"

"Fine, Clark, good luck."

*****

Lois was back at her desk by the time Clark returned to the City section,
and he breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of her.   "How did it go?" he
asked, giving her a hug and a kiss on the cheek.   "The interview with the
City Planner?"

Lois shrugged.  "Not much help.  He was pretty surprised when I confronted
him with the fact that a subsidiary of LexCorp owned the Dexter Building,
but he recovered quickly.  He just said that the city was entering
negotiations to purchase the land now that there was no more building on
it, and that they expected the process to go smoothly and cause no delays
on the Redevelopment Project.   He annoyed the hell out of me, though,
because every time I tried to ask him about Luthor, he just said 'no
comment'.  I was not amused."

"I'm sorry I couldn't go with you.  But I figured I'd better get back here
and start investigating our other problem."

Lois tensed.  "Yeah, how did that go?  Is she here?  Did you find out
anything?"

"I've got Jimmy trying to see if she listed anyone as an emergency contact.
I struck out with the phone number and mailing address she gave.  The phone
is disconnected and she picks up her mail at the post office."

Lois fumed.  "Just wait till she tries to come back in here.  I'll give her
what for."

"I don't think we'll have to worry about that.  Peggy Lawrence said that
Kate quit this morning.  Didn't talk to anyone, just left a message.
Didn't say why."

"Maybe we scared her off," Lois offered hopefully.

Clark's face was grim.  "Maybe, but I'm not counting on it.  Something is
wrong here.  You heard her reaction when I told her I wasn't interested--it
was like she wouldn't believe that, no matter what I said.  I'm worried
she's going to get desperate and do something stupid."

Clark was about to say more when Jimmy walked up quickly, holding a form.
"I think I have something for you, Clark," the younger man said.  "The
phone number and address she gave to Personnel is the same as she gave to
Mrs. Lawrence, but she did put down an emergency contact."  Jimmy read from
the paper before handing it to Clark.  "A Mrs. Kathryn Martin, in Topeka,
Kansas.  There's a phone number."

Clark took the page.  "That's where Kate's mom used to live.  Let's hope
the number is still good."  He stood up and looked at Lois.  "Care to join
me for a phone call in the conference room?"

Lois jumped up.  "I wouldn't miss this for the world!"

*****

Mrs. Martin answered on the second ring.  "Hello?"

"Hello," Clark responded politely.  "Is this Mrs. Kathryn Martin?"

"Yes," the woman answered, a little suspiciously.  "Who is this?"

"Mrs. Martin, my name is Clark Kent.  I'm a reporter with the Daily Planet
in Metropolis."

The woman on the other end of the line gasped audibly.  "Did you say Clark
Kent?"

Lois and Clark looked at each other, eyebrows raised.  "Yes, I did.  I'm
calling about your daughter Kate ..."

"Oh, God," the woman cried. "Is she OK?  Is she hurt?  Oh, please let her
be all right.  Is she in Metropolis with you?"

Clark leaned a little closer to the speaker phone.  "She's fine as far as I
know, Ma'am.  I take it you didn't know she was coming to Metropolis?  She
got a job as an Assistant Editor here last week."

"No," Mrs. Martin answered, "she disappeared two months ago and we haven't
heard from her since.  We've been frantic."

The woman sounded so relieved that Clark decided not to mention that Kate
had seemingly disappeared again.  "Mrs. Martin, I'm worried about Kate,
too.  She's been acting ... strangely, and I'm hoping we can find out why
and get her some help.   I work in a different department at the Daily
Planet from Kate, but I also used to be the Managing Editor of the
Smallville Press, in Kansas, where Kate did an internship after her
freshman year--"

"I know exactly who you are, Mr. Kent," the woman interrupted.  "And I
should have known Kate would go to find you.  I guess I was hoping she was
just trying to start over in a new city and that's why she didn't call us."

This took Clark by surprise.  "Ma'am?"

Mrs. Martin sighed. "Kate's been in and out of institutions since her
sophomore year of college.  We had to pull her out of the University of
Kansas halfway through the spring semester.  Her roommates called us in
January, worried about her.  Apparently she'd started acting unusually in
the fall, but after Christmas, she really went downhill.  She'd always been
a straight A student, so we couldn't figure out what was wrong.  She wasn't
going to class, wasn't doing her homework.  Instead, she'd just sit at her
desk, looking at pictures and writing in her journal.  My husband and I got
her some counseling over spring break, thinking she was just depressed, but
within a couple weeks, it was clear she wasn't going to go back that
semester.  We went up to her apartment at school and packed up all her
stuff.  We had to put her in a hospital not long after."

Clark sat back, stunned.  "I had no idea," he murmured.  "That summer we
worked together, I never saw any signs of this."

"Kate was eventually diagnosed as having a delusional disorder," her mother
continued quietly.  "She's not schizophrenic, but her condition falls in
the same family.  There's no cure for her disease, but with medication and
counseling, she's been able to function fairly normally since then.  It
took awhile, but eventually she graduated from a University of Kansas
extension program closer to our home.  She's been working hard, and we were
starting to let ourselves believe she might be getting better."  The woman
sniffled.  "Then she disappeared.  I should have known to look in
Metropolis, though."

Lois took the opportunity to introduce herself.  "Mrs. Martin, my name is
Lois Lane and I'm Clark's partner here at the Planet.  Why aren't you
surprised that Kate came to Metropolis?"

Mrs. Martin took a deep breath.  "Part of Kate's delusion was that Mr. Kent
was in love with her, and she with him.  We knew they'd become friends in
Smallville that summer because she used to talk about him.  But after she
returned to school, things got out of control.  When we cleaned out her
room, we found hundreds ofletters she had written but never mailed.  At
first, they were normal, friendly letters, but as the months went on, we
could almost see her sliding from reality.  Soon, the letters became love
letters where Kate would describe encounters between the two of them that
either never happened or were so embellished that they were barely
recognizable.  Her journals were the same way.  We also found copies of
articles that you had written, Mr. Kent.  They'd been cut from the
Smallville Press, or from other papers that you'd been published in."

"Well, that sounds familiar ..." Lois murmured.

"Excuse me?  What was that?"

Clark explained.  "Apparently Kate has revived that hobby.  The Planet
archives were gone through as well as the newspaper files at several local
libraries.  She seems to be collecting articles again."

Mrs. Martin was dismayed.  "Oh, I'm so sorry, Mr. Kent.  I hope she hasn't
been bothering you."

Clark hesitated, trying to pick his words carefully.  "Well, actually ...
we've had some incidents.  She's been sending gifts and letters to my home,
and calling frequently.  At first we didn't know who was doing it, because
she wasn't signing her name, but last night, I finally talked to her on the
phone."

"Are the police involved?"

"No, I was hoping we could take care of this without involving the
authorities because I can see that Kate needs help.   But to keep it that
way, I need to know ... has Kate ever shown signs of being violent?  She
made comments last night about getting my wife out of the picture.
Needless to say, I'm concerned about my family's safety."

Kate's mother gasped.  "Violent?  Oh, dear God, I hope not.  She hasn't
done anything confrontational has she?"

Lois interjected quietly.  "She tried to pick up our daughter from daycare,
Mrs. Martin, telling them Clark wanted her to have the baby."

Clark explained further.  "Lois isn't just my partner here at work; she's
also my wife.  We have a eight month old daughter, and Kate seems to
believe that I am going to leave Lois and raise the baby with her.  At
first, the letters and gifts were just annoying, but when she tried to take
the baby....   In any case, I told her last night that I had no romantic
interest in her, but I'm not sure it sank in.  I'm worried she's going to
do something to Lois, or to herself."

Mrs. Martin sighed.  "Oh, I am so, so sorry for both of you and for your
little girl.  I appreciate you letting us know.  Rest assured, Mr. Kent, my
husband and I will be on the next plane to Metropolis.  Where exactly is
Kate staying?  Wait, let me get a pencil ..."

Lois swallowed, feeling strong sympathy for this woman who obviously loved
her daughter very much.  She looked at Clark, gathering resolve.
"Actually, we're not sure where Kate is staying now.  She quit her job this
morning, and her phone has been disconnected."

"Oh, no!"

Lois thought for a moment, then asked, "Mrs. Martin, does Kate have a
doctor we could speak with?  We'd really like to make sure she doesn't pose
any sort of danger."

Mrs. Martin agreed and gave Lois the name and phone number of Kate's last
doctor in Topeka.  She obtained airport information from Clark, then began
to say her final good-byes.

"Mr. Kent?  Can I ask one last favor of you?"

"Sure, what?"

Kate's mother's voice was thick with emotion.  "If Kate does show up, can
you please have her arrested?"

Lois and Clark both blinked in surprise.  "Excuse me?  You *want* me to
involve the authorities?"

The woman explained.  "Since Kate is an adult, we can't have her committed
unless she shows strong signs of being a danger to herself or others.
Except for this one delusion, she comes across in the hospitals as being
entirely normal, so it's difficult to keep her in for long enough to get
her the kind of care she needs.  They've--the police and the doctors--told
us the only way they can get her admitted as a patient is if she is
arrested and the courts mandate she be evaluated."  The woman stifled a
sob.  "We're so afraid she's going to get hurt ... we keep hoping she'll be
arrested on some relatively minor charge, like trespassing or loitering,
and we'll be able to get her transferred to a hospital here in Kansas."

Clark sighed heavily.  "I understand.  And I am sorry.  If we find her,
we'll try to get her some help until you get here."

As they hung up the phone, Lois and Clark stared at each other, amazed by
what they'd learned.

*****

An hour later, they emerged from the conference room, looking weary but
determined.  Jimmy motioned to them from Perry's office and, after a quick
phone call downstairs to make sure Laura was all right, they went to fill
their friends in on what they had found.

Perry and Jimmy were as stunned as Lois and Clark when the reporters
explained their phone call with Mrs. Martin.

"Great shades of Elvis!" Perry exclaimed.

"She seemed so *normal*," Jimmy offered.

Clark shrugged.  "Apparently, that's not unusual, from what the doctor
said.  He wouldn't give us any specifics about Kate, citing doctor-patient
confidentiality, but we convinced him to give us some general background on
her disorder."

Lois consulted her notes.  "Her condition is called a "Non-bizarre
Delusional Disorder". There are various subtypes within the disorder, like
the "Jealous Type", where the patient is convinced their partner is
unfaithful or the "Somatic Type", where the person believes they have some
type of medical condition.  Kate's disorder seems to fall in the
"Erotomanic Type", where the patient is convinced someone--often
unattainable--is in love with them.  The person can be directly confronted
with evidence that their delusion is false--that the person they love
doesn't love them in return, or in some cases, has never even met them--but
it is nearly impossible to convince them of it."

"This would fit with our phone conversation last night," Clark interjected.
"I told Kate very clearly that I loved Lois and had no intentions of ever
leaving her, yet Kate still insisted she and I were in love."

Jimmy tried to stifle a grin.  "*Eroto* manic?" he clarified.  "Geez, I
couldn't make that up."

Clark couldn't help but smile a little in return.  "I know, it's pretty
fitting, I guess.  In any case, the doctor confirmed that there is no cure.
One positive thing, though--while male patients with this disorder can turn
violent; in women, this is more uncommon.  In fact, in many cases, the
woman leads a normal life, and no one ever knows they have the condition,
unless the object of their obsession comes up in conversation."

Lois smiled ruefully.  "Apparently, this was the case with Kate up until a
couple months ago.  Her family wasn't even aware that Clark had moved to
Metropolis until they searched Kate's room after she disappeared, and found
several copies of the Daily Planet.  Apparently Kate came across Clark's
picture recently, and it set her off again."

The four of them sat in silence for a moment, trying to absorb everything.
Finally, Perry spoke.  "So, what do we do now?"

Lois and Clark just looked at each other.

"I don't know, Chief," Clark responded grimly, "but we need to find her
before she hurts herself--or someone else.  The doctors may say she's not
prone to violence, but I'm not going to risk the safety of my family on the
chance they could be wrong."

*****

Difficult as it was to work while Kate Martin could be out there anywhere,
Lois and Clark had to pull out their other story files.  They would have
preferred to ignore them, but they still had their suspicions of Lex Luthor
to address.

By early that afternoon, they had done as much as they could with the
sign-in sheet from the auction, and had come up with a list of six names.
These six people had all attended the auction of Lex Luthor's estate in
1994--and were now listed among the 20 unsolved murders that had occurred
in Metropolis in the last six months.  Six out of twenty wasn't proof of
anything, but it was enough to convince Lois and Clark they were on the
right track with their investigation.

A visit to the auction house after lunch helped their investigation gather
speed.  As Clark suspected, the manager had been dragging his feet in
providing the official list of purchasers.  A visit by Lane and Kent,
however--in person and giving thinly veiled threats of camping out in the
man's office until the document was produced--amazingly seemed to jog the
man's memory of where that particular list was located.

It was exactly the information they were looking for.

"OK, looks like we got something," Clark called from his desk as he read
through the list back in the newsroom.

Lois looked up from her keyboard.  "What?"

Clark tapped the paper.  "Of the six people on our list of dead attendees,
three of them made purchases at the auction itself."

"What about the other three?"

"They weren't the high bidder on anything that day, but I've found two more
murder victims who were. They must not have signed in for some reason."

"Or we couldn't read their handwriting."

Clark nodded in agreement.  "One is that doctor over at Metropolis General
who was killed last month, and the other is an artist from London."  Clark
put the paper down and gave a humorless laugh.  "This is just too much
coincidence for me.  A collector from England makes two trips to the US in
the last five years.  The first one, he buys a painting from the Luthor
estate, and the second, he's killed?  It's almost too obvious.  Is Luthor
getting sloppy?"

"Or desperate," Lois suggested.  "You think he could be so anxious to get
his wealth back that he starts leaving bodies around?"  She looked
doubtful. "I don't know, it just doesn't seem to be his style."

"Maybe he's just having trouble getting good help these days."  Clark shook
his head.  "I'm positive that Luthor is somehow connected to these five
purchasers, so we just need to find a connection with the other victims.
We have three that attended the auction but didn't buy anything--"

"But we have twelve more with no connection to Lex Luthor whatsoever," Lois
pointed out.  "We need more than this to go to Henderson, Clark."

Clark looked grim.  "Well, we better keep looking then."

Lois nodded and turned to her phone. "I'm going to call the families of
these other three, the ones who attended the auction but didn't buy
anything.  Maybe we can find out something they didn't tell the police."
When Clark didn't answer her right away, she turned back.  "Clark?  Did you
hear what I said?"

Her husband was staring at the paper on his desk, obviously lost in deep
thought.  "What?  Oh, sorry, honey, I was just thinking."

"I could see that ... care to share?"

Clark looked around their immediate area to see if anyone was in earshot.
He leaned forward and lowered his voice.  "I was just thinking about
Luthor's whole clone story.  What if he is lying?  Why hasn't he tried to
expose me?"

Lois matched his quiet tone.  "Maybe he thinks he can use it to blackmail
us later on."

Clark set his jaw.  "Like if we try to expose his story ... or connect him
to a string of murders."

They stared at each other for a long moment, then Clark stood abruptly and
grabbed his jacket from the back of his chair.

"Where are you going?"

Clark walked over to Lois's desk.   "I'll be back soon.  I have to go see a
scientist about a computer file."  Cupping her cheek, Clark leaned down and
gave his wife a deep kiss.  He whispered a vow to her as their lips
separated.  "I won't allow Lex Luthor to control our destiny."

*****

In a swirl of red and blue, Superman landed in the courtyard of STAR Labs.
Nodding his hello to the surprised guards, he made his way through the
nearest door to Dr. Bernard Klein's office.

Dr. Klein turned around at Clark's knock on the open office door. "Well,
hello, *Superman*," he said, glancing at the young lab assistant at the
next desk.

The new employee's head whipped up from the test tubes he was checking and
he almost dropped his notepad. "Superman!" he gasped.

Clark smiled slightly.  He was no longer surprised by this response when
meeting a new person, and although it wasn't necessary, he appreciated Dr.
Klein's heads-up that there was someone else present in the room.

Dr. Klein made introductions.  "Superman, this is Paul Howard, my new lab
assistant.  Paul, meet Superman."

"Pleased to meet you, Paul," Clark said, extending his hand.

Wide-eyed, the young man held his hand out.  "Pleased to meet *you*!"  When
the handshake ended, Paul looked at his hand in awe, like he had never seen
it before.

Clark forced himself to take on an overly serious tone of voice.  "Dr.
Klein, may I speak to you ... alone?"  Clark shot a quick look at the lab
assistant, who was now staring at them in rapt attention.  "I, uh, I'd like
to get your input on a matter."

Dr. Klein smiled.  "My *input*?  Oh, yes, Superman, certainly.  Paul, would
you excuse us, please?  I need to help my friend Superman for a moment."

Clark's eyes twinkled and he had to stifle a grin as the younger man turned
his gaze away from the super-hero and now fixed his boss with the same
awe-filled expression.  The look on his face was positively reverent.
"What?  Oh, yes, Dr. Klein ... I'll be in Lab 3 ... thank you, sir."

Paul backed out of the door, closing it behind him while Klein and Superman
waited.  As soon as the door was securely shut, the two remaining men
allowed themselves to laugh.

Dr. Klein chuckled and slapped the super-hero on the back in a friendly
gesture.  "Gee, thanks, Clark," he said.  "That little boost in reputation
should get me at least 15 hours of unpaid overtime out of that young man."

Clark chuckled, too.  "Glad I could be of help."

"So, what brings you to STAR Labs?  No problems with the baby, again, I hope?"

"No, she's doing just fine.  She's so close to crawling, but she hasn't
quite figured it out yet.  She just kind of rocks back and forth on her
hands and knees, not understanding why she's not moving forward!" Clark
answered, laughing.

Dr. Klein smiled at the proud look on Clark's face.  It was obvious how
enthralled the young man was with his little girl.   As he did every time
he and Superman shared a personal moment, Bernard counted himself lucky to
be one of the very few people in the world able to get to know the "real
person" behind the brightly colored costume.

"What can I do for you, today, then?"

Clark sobered quickly as he remembered why he had come.  "I wanted to see
what kind of progress you were making on the computer files that I gave you
a few months ago."

Dr. Klein stared at him blankly for a moment, causing Clark to look
concerned.  Then the cloud lifted.  "Ah, yes!  The encoding!  I have all
that information locked in my personal safe ... let me get it out.  As you
know, I haven't been able to work on it during regular business hours--not
that we ever keep any regular hours around here--but I have managed to make
some progress ... now, let me find that ..."

Clark shifted his weight back and forth as the scientist dug out the
information he had locked away.  Clark had brought Dr. Klein these computer
files four months ago, not long after he had "obtained" them from Lex
Luthor's computer banks.  Clark was not normally prone to hacking into
private computers, but as he had told Tempus nearly two years ago, where
his wife's--and now daughter's--safety was concerned, villains could 'watch
his ethics disappear.'

After it became clear this fall that someone had tried to manipulate the
custody hearing he and Lois were forced to undergo over baby Laura, Clark
had become more and more suspicious of Lex Luthor and his clone story.
Just as with the string of murders he and Lois were now investigating,
Clark had no proof of Luthor's involvement in anything.  But there had been
too many coincidences in the last several months to allow Clark to sleep
well knowing that Luthor was walking free and that he was capable of almost
anything.

It hadn't been easy to break into LexLabs's old computer files--he could
never have done it without Jimmy Olsen's help--but once inside, Clark had
downloaded every file he could find that might have to do with Lex Luthor's
cloning projects.  There were files dated from the late 1980's, with
activity seeming to pick up in late 1993. This by itself seemed to support
Lex's claim that he'd produced a clone of himself in spring of 1994.   But
Clark wanted more.

Clark had held onto the files for weeks, unsure about what to do with them.
He had attempted to break the codes himself a few times, but had given up
fairly quickly.  He had never seen codes as intricate as these before.
Between his job at the Planet, being Superman, and spending time with Lois
and Laura, he simply did not have the time to devote to cracking them, not
without sacrificing other parts of his life.  So he had turned to Dr. Klein.

Dr. Klein had agreed to set his computers to work on cracking the files but
both men knew it would be a time-consuming project.  Due to Clark's
concerns that his secret identity might be revealed in the encoded
documents--perhaps as a safeguard against just this kind of attempt--they
could not allow this to be an official STAR Labs project.  The work had to
be completed in Klein's spare time, and kept under lock and key.  It would
take much longer this way, but it could not be avoided. At least not until
they knew how much sensitive information was in the files.

Dr. Klein laid out reams of paper on an empty lab table.  "Let me show you
what I've done so far,  Superman."  Bernard began pointing out various
sections in the paperwork.  "The reason these files have been so difficult
to decode--besides there being so many of them--is that different codes
were used, not just for each document, but *within* each document."  He
picked up one short stack of paper.  "I've been able to identify sixteen
different codes in this one four page document alone!"  He set it back
down. "Unfortunately, the computer has only been able to crack a few of
them."

Clark studied the jumble of letters, numbers and symbols on the page.   "It
looks like there are small sections here and there that are in English,
while the rest is just gibberish."

Klein nodded.  "Exactly.  Scattered throughout each document are single
paragraphs that have been decoded.  Does anything look familiar or
important to you?"

With super-speed, Clark read through the vast quantities of paper Klein had
laid out.   When he finished, Clark's jaw was set.  "There are still too
many holes, but what I see here does suggest that we're on the right track.
Hopefully the computer can crack some more soon, and the puzzle pieces will
start fitting together."   Clark singled out one file in particular and
lifted it up for Klein to see.  "This one is dated early 1994 and seems to
talk about a specific cloning project.  Could this be proof that Lex Luthor
was telling the truth that he cloned himself around then?"

Klein took the file from Clark and studied it for a long moment.  Then, his
brow knitted in concentration, he quickly turned to a different computer in
the room and pulled up some information on the screen.  Finally, he nodded
to himself as he compared the data.   "I don't see anything about a Lex
Luthor clone, but there are some bits and pieces here that imply he may
have been working on a clone of you."

"Of *me*?"  Clark shuddered.  All of his fears of Lex Luthor trying to
kidnap Laura to clone his own super-hero came flooding into his mind.  He
hadn't expected to find proof--or maybe he'd been in denial.

"Yes, yes ..."  Bernard mused.  "This string of what looks like gibberish
actually was already decoded--it's a representation of a DNA sequence--your
DNA sequence.  It looks like they may have had some success, too ... though
it was short-lived."

"What are you saying, Dr. Klein?"

Bernard looked up.  "What?  Oh, I'm sorry ... I was just saying this is
your DNA in this file, and from these further sections, it looks like they
produced a clone from it.  That clone only lived two weeks, however.  Based
on what we learned about the Lois clone in 1996, this short life-span
fits."  Dr. Klein looked nostalgic.  "That poor Lois clone .. she was such
a nice girl ... remember, that was back before you and Lois got married,
and Lex Luthor had kidnapped--"

"I *remember*, Dr. Klein, believe me," Clark said, a little more sharply
than he intended.

Klein came back to reality, looking apologetic.  "Of course you do, sorry.
Didn't mean to bring up bad memories ..."

"Is there anything more about this Superman clone?" Clark interrupted,
trying to get the doctor back on track.

"The Superman clone?  Oh, yes!  The Superman clone ... well, the last entry
on the file was made in March of 1994.  It says "project failed, sample
gone."  Unfortunately, the rest of the information is still encoded."

Meanwhile, in Clark's mind, puzzle pieces were quickly coming together.
March 1994 ... "Of course!" he exclaimed.  "There was a Superman clone in
1994, but he never told me who had made him.  He kept referring to 'his
father'.  His 'father' taught him that 'might makes right' and that he
should kill me ... but he wouldn't do it."  Clark sat down, stunned.  "Lex
Luthor created that Superman clone.  Why didn't I see that before?!"

Klein nodded, still comparing the computer screen to the print-out.  "That
was before I came to Metropolis, but it certainly sounds likely from what
little we've been able to recover.  There is still so much more to decode."

Clark sighed, resigned.  "I just wish there was something more we could use
to prove that Luthor never cloned himself, only others.  But I do
appreciate your help, Dr. Klein.  If you find out anything more--  Dr.
Klein?"

Klein wasn't listening, however. His eyes had opened wide and his jaw had
dropped.  "Well, this is interesting!"

Clark stepped quickly to the computer screen.  "What?"

Klein was excited.  "I hadn't thought to look for DNA sequences in the
codes before!  This might be it!"

Clark just looked at him, perplexed.

Klein explained further, pointing to the screen.  "Lois's clone ... this
was her DNA sequence.  And this," he added, pulling up another file, "is
your wife's DNA.  Don't you see??"

Clark furrowed his brow, trying to make sense of the mass of symbols on the
screen.  "Why don't you point it out to me."

Klein typed into his keyboard quickly, pulling up more files and dragging
them to different areas of the screen.  "Frogs!" he exclaimed.  "Before
this file, I had no way of knowing if the frog DNA used to clone Lois in
1996 was essential to the process, or just one of many attempts.  According
to what I have here, though, about the Superman clone of 1994, frog DNA
*is* essential!   Look--compare the strings of your and Lois's DNA to that
of each clone. They've been manipulated in the same way.  I think we have
our smoking gun!"

Clark stood up straight, getting excited himself.  "Because if Luthor did
make a clone of himself," he added quickly, "there would have to be frog
DNA involved."

"Yes!  Because the frog DNA is what provides the maturation hormone.
Without it, you could only produce infant clones that age normally, not the
instant adult ones we've seen."

"So, if we could prove somehow that the Lex Luthor who jumped off the
building to his death in 1994--or the one who was killed in the underground
tunnel in 1996--had no frog DNA in him ..."

"Then he wasn't a clone at all," Klein finished.  "He was the real Lex
Luthor all along."

Clark's eyes narrowed.  "And Lex Luthor will be exposed for the liar and
murderer that he is."

*****

Lex Luthor closed the newspaper that he was reading and crumpled it into a
ball.   He squeezed it as tightly as he could, placed it on his desk ...
and smashed it with his fist.

"That's what I'd like to do to you, Mr. Kent," he seethed.

Lex had thought last week was intolerable, but this week was starting out
to be just as unpleasant.  Oh, he hadn't lost any money yet--he'd actually
made a pretty penny on some illegal weapons trades this weekend--but he'd
not been pleased by what he'd read in the newspapers today.

Lois Lane seemed to be poking her nose into his business again.  He had no
idea how she had found out about his unfortunate business deal so quickly,
but there it was, in the morning edition--on the front page, no less.  She
had followed the steps from the Dexter Building to LBL Realty to LexCorp
almost effortlessly, and printed the story of his humiliation for all to
read.  Fortunately, she made no mentions of the bonds in the walls--if she
even knew about them--but it didn't matter.  The article was written to
make Lex look foolish and he didn't appreciate it.

It was a page 3 article that had really caught his attention, however.
Though innocuous in itself, it confirmed his suspicions--Clark Kent was
investigating several unsolved murders around town, and trying to connect
them.  The article didn't give anything away, not yet, but Lex's sources
confirmed that Kent was poking around into Lex's recent
acquisitions--acquisitions of his own property!   Lex's contact at the
auction house phoned as soon as Lane and Kent had left the building,
purchasers list in hand.  Lex knew better than to believe it was unrelated
to Kent's story--Clark Kent was trying to connect Lex Luthor to a string of
murders.

"Let him try," Lex sneered.  He'd been in this business far too long to let
himself be connected.  He had people to take the fall, people who knew
better than to open their mouths to try to cut a deal.  Lex Luthor still
had contacts everywhere, not the least of whom were in prisons all around
the world.  People on his payroll knew they wouldn't last long in jail
should they cross Lex Luthor.

Yet, Lex mused as he picked up the crumpled paper and toyed with it,
someone apparently was trying to cross him.  He'd had too many accidents,
too many leaks, for it all to be bad luck.  So far, he wasn't sure who was
betraying him, but it wouldn't be long before he found out.  No one
betrayed Lex Luthor and lived.

For a fleeting moment, Lex considered the possibility that Clark Kent was
using his ... talents ... in ways that were less than scrupulous.  Would
the boy scout relax his ethics in order to bring down his arch rival?  He
had, after all, broken into LexLabs computer banks several months ago and
stolen a large number of cloning files.

Lex laughed.  No, the fact that Kent was trying to prove that Lex was a
criminal by good old-fashioned investigative work meant that the man still
lived by his do-gooder morals.  And that was all Lex needed to know.

"You two have been a thorn in my side for far too long," Lex said as he
tossed the crumpled newspaper into the fireplace, and watched it burn.
"But it won't be long before I win.  And you, Mr. Kent, will find your
secret splashed across headlines from here to eternity."

*****

Beth Luthor sat in the library, surrounded by her books.  The bitter irony
of the situation haunted her constantly.  That is exactly what she sold her
soul for when she saved Lex Luthor, nursed him back to health, and helped
him invent the story that would allow him to return to society and rebuild
his empire.

She had been foolish, she knew now, thinking she could change him, thinking
he would come to love her and keep her safe.  But now she knew better.  He
had been so talented, so brilliant. That is what drew her to him in the
first place, made her want to help him.  If she could only re-channel that
mind and heart into something worthwhile ... she could save him, and
herself in the process.

In the beginning, she stupidly believed she could direct him.  She
orchestrated his return to polite society, insisting that independent
accountants review his books to show the law that he had nothing to hide.
She had even hired a slew of private investigators to try to keep tabs on
him.  But it wasn't long before she had to admit that she'd been out of her
league.

It was discovering his plot to steal Lois Lane and Clark Kent's child away
from them that had finally opened her eyes. As her blindness lifted, she
realized how misplaced her trust had been.  Oh, she still loved her
husband.  But she no longer trusted him.  And that made all the difference
in the world.

In a moment of foolish love, she had given him her 'insurance policy', the
letter she had written explaining how she came to find Lex Luthor, battered
and beaten in a run down apartment--and how she suggested the plan that
would return him to his previous glory, while clearing him of all his past
wrong-doings.  This letter was to have saved her life; the knowledge that
he would be exposed upon her death was her husband's incentive to keep her
alive and safe.

But it didn't matter.  She now knew that only she could save herself.  It
was a dangerous game she was playing; if he found out her plan, there would
be no mercy.  But there was no turning back now, and nowhere to run.   Even
if she did run, there was nowhere for her to go.

*****

Superman landed in a deserted alley behind the Daily Planet building, and
within seconds, Clark Kent turned the corner onto the sidewalk, adjusting
his tie as he walked.  He'd been gone from the newsroom for only an hour,
but it was a worth-while hour.  He now had a way to expose Lex Luthor's
story.  He didn't know exactly how he would accomplish that yet, but the
knowledge that he finally had a tool was empowering.  Lex Luthor had been
responsible for so much pain in his life--not to mention to many others in
the city--and Clark could not allow that to continue.

"Seize the high ground ..." Clark murmured to himself as he opened the door
to the lobby.  That was exactly what he intended to do--somehow.

Clark made his way through the lobby towards the elevators.  He'd been
distracted several times over the course of his trip, worrying about Kate
Martin's whereabouts.  He'd even done a few patrols around the city on his
way back from STAR Labs in hopes of locating her.  But his beeper hadn't
gone off, and his hearing hadn't picked up any "help Superman" calls--from
Lois or anyone else--so he could only believe that everything was fine.
Maybe Lois was right, maybe he had scared Kate off with his refusal.

As Clark passed by the daycare center door, he heard something else that
demanded his attention.  His daughter was fussing inside.  Making a quick
detour, he back-tracked and went inside to check on Laura.

Susan was once again working in the infant room, and smiled when she saw
him.  "You're just in time," she chirped.  "Look Laura!  Daddy's here!"

The little girl just looked at her father through her tears and held her
arms out.  Clark felt his heart melt.  "Well, come here, my little bundle.
What's the matter?" he cooed as he took her into his arms.

"Laura just woke up a little cranky from her afternoon nap, that's all,"
Susan explained, "and I'm sure she'd love to cuddle with you for a few
minutes while I change the rest of the babies' diapers."

Clark gladly accepted. "Oh, honey, don't cry.  Come on, sit down with me."
Clark sat down in a rocking chair in the far corner of the room, and rocked
with Laura.  It wasn't long before she calmed, snuggling into her daddy's
warm chest.

Twenty minutes later, Susan was done changing the remaining three babies
and was back in the room.  Clark reluctantly stood, knowing his own break
was over, too.

As soon as Clark handed Laura back to Susan, however, the baby began to
cry.  "Oh, Laura, not again," he said, fighting the urge to take her back
into his arms.  He felt terrible leaving her like this, but he remembered
the conversation with Ruth just the week before--that Laura always stopped
crying within a few minutes of being dropped off.  He looked at Susan for
support.  "I guess the longer I stay, the longer she'll cry, huh?"

Susan nodded.  "She'll be fine, Mr. Kent, I promise."

Clark steeled himself and kissed his daughter on the forehead.  "I'll be
back soon, Laura.  Mommy and I will pick you up in just two short hours,
and we'll all go home, OK?"

A few minutes later, Laura was still crying, and Clark was back in the
lobby, feeling guilty.  Walking towards the elevator and trying to distract
himself out of listening, Clark wondered what had been going on in the
newsroom while he was gone.  While waiting for the elevator to arrive in
the lobby, he tried to focus his hearing upstairs, but to no avail.  Once
again, he found it nearly impossible to get Laura's cries out of his mind,
and it was difficult to shift his focus.

Distracted, he almost missed Ralph stepping out of the elevator doors.
Upon seeing Clark, however, the man instantly jumped back in just as the
doors closed.

Clark blinked in surprise.  "Ralph, what are you doing?" he said, annoyed.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa ..." Ralph said excitedly, hitting the emergency stop
button.  "Clark, hold on, you may not want to go up there unprepared."

"What are you talking about Ralph?" Clark snapped, reaching around him to
release the brake.   Clark was anxious to talk to Lois about what he had
learned at STAR Labs, and the last thing he had time for right now was
playing stupid games with his annoying co-worker.

"Hey, don't bite my head off.  You should be thanking me for warning you
... your girlfriend was here looking for you earlier.  I figured you'd want
to keep her away from your *wife*."

Clark blanched as the elevator jerked and continued to rise.  "Kate?  She
was here?!?  When?"

"Is that her name?  I don't know, about 15 minutes ago, I guess.  I was on
my way into the archives.  I told her you weren't in the newsroom, but I'm
not sure she believed me.  You better hope you get up there before Lois
finds her.  I can't imagine what kind of fireworks would happen if they got
together."   Almost gleefully, Ralph slapped Clark on the back.   "You old
dog, Kent!  I don't know how you do it, keeping up with a spitfire like
Lois Lane and still finding time to keep a pretty young thing on the side."

Clark angrily shrugged off Ralph's arm around his shoulder.  "Shut up,
Ralph," he hissed, trying to stop the man's incessant babbling.  Having a
very bad feeling about things, Clark was desperately trying to get a lock
on the newsroom with his super-hearing, but with Ralph jabbering excitedly
in his ear, all he was getting was a splitting headache.

"Hey, don't worry about me; I'm not going to tell Lois!  So, is your
girlfriend as hot as she looks? She--urgh!"  Ralph made a straggled noise
as Clark gripped him around the throat and pushed him up against the wall
of the elevator.

"I said, shut UP!" Clark roared.  There was still a half a floor to go
until the newsroom, and he was almost frantic to make sure Lois was safe.
Convinced that Ralph wouldn't continue his offensive monologue--the man's
eyes were bugged out as he looked at Clark like he'd lost his mind--Clark
finally tuned his hearing to the newsroom.  It was quiet ... too quiet.

As the elevator dinged to announce its arrival on the third floor, Clark
released Ralph, who sank against the wall, rubbing his neck.  "Geez, Kent,
remind me never to do you a favor again."

Clark shot him a warning look before stepping quickly through the open
doors.  Ralph followed slowly, mumbling insults under his breath.

The scene that greeted them was exactly what Clark had dreaded.  Lois stood
in the middle of the newsroom, about five feet from Kate Martin.  Other
staff members in the area were frozen to their desks, watching the two
women with great apprehension.

The bell of the elevator had caught Lois's attention and when she saw Clark
exit, she looked visibly relieved.  "Clark, thank God," she said.

Kate, too, looked relieved.  "Oh, Clark, I'm so glad you're here."  She
turned back to Lois.  "Now you'll see!" she exclaimed defiantly.

Clark approached them carefully, slowly.  "Maybe someone needs to tell me
what's going on here," he said, trying to keep his voice calm.  He looked
at Lois, communicating with his eyes that it was going to be OK.  "Lois?
Kate?"

Before either could answer him, Jimmy called out from where he stood frozen
near Clark's desk. "Careful, CK, she has a gun."

Behind Clark, Ralph paled visibly and backed away.  "Oh, great!" he whined.
"Just great ... I should have kept walking when I hit the lobby, but
*noooo*.  I had to come up to see the fireworks ..."  This time Clark
ignored him, too intent on making sure his wife did not get in the way of
the gun he now saw in Kate Martin's hand.  Other staffers took up the task,
however, silencing Ralph with withering stares.

Clark put his hands out in front of him, placating his stalker.  "Kate?
Give me the gun ..."

The young woman gave a choked sob, and turned away from Lois, pointing the
gun in Clark's general direction.  Staffers gasped, and Clark stopped.

"I don't want to hurt anyone," the woman said in a quavering voice.  "But I
will if I have to.  I just want us to be together."

"OK," soothed Clark.  "I understand."

"Yes, you do," agreed Kate.  "You're the only one who does.  Everyone else,
they say I'm crazy, that you don't love me.  The doctors, my family ... no
one understands except us.  I know you've been waiting for me.   And you
only married Lois because I wasn't here."   Kate began pacing, agitated.
She waved the gun as she walked.

As Kate became distracted, Lois took the opportunity to step closer to
Clark. "Kate came up here about 15 minutes ago, looking for you," she
explained quickly.  "She asked me to do the honorable thing and let you go
with her.  When I tried to call security, she pulled this gun."

"So much for not being violent," Clark murmured.

Kate noticed the two of them standing there.  "Don't talk to him!" she
screamed at Lois, nearly hysterical.  Clark quickly used one arm to get
Lois behind him, inserting himself between his wife and the gun still in
Kate's hand.  Kate started to cry.  "I love you, Clark.  Why are you still
with her?  She can't love you the way I do."

More confident now that Lois was safely behind him, Clark took another stop
towards Kate.  "Kate, give me the gun," he ordered.

Kate lifted the gun to her temple. "Don't come any closer, or I swear, I'll
pull the trigger."

Clark froze.  "You don't want to do that."

"Why shouldn't I?  If you won't leave her, what's the point?   I thought
that it didn't matter, that it would be enough just to know the truth about
how we felt about each other.  But it wasn't ... it's been awful without
you.  I can't live this way anymore.  It's so hard," she sobbed.

"Listen to me, Kate," he pleaded.  "You've been sick, very sick.  You need
help.  I can get you that help."

She didn't seem to be listening anymore, however. She closed her eyes, and
her finger started to squeeze the trigger.  Several people in the newsroom
gasped in horror, while others turned away, unable to watch.

His mind racing, Clark calculated the time it would take him to get to
her-- but it wouldn't be enough, not even at super-speed.   The gun was
simply too close to her head.

Desperate, he tried one last time.  "Kate, wait!" he called.  "Don't do
this ... please.  I would never forgive myself if you did.  Do you want to
hurt me like that?"

That gave her pause.  She opened her eyes again and her finger loosened
slightly.  "No ..." she answered slowly, confused.

Clark saw his opening.  He kept talking, keeping her attention as he moved
closer.  "It would hurt me ... terribly.  You and I were friends, Kate.
Friends don't hurt each other, do they?"

"No ..."

Clark took another step.  "You were so important to me that summer, Kate.
Did I ever tell you that?  How much you helped me?  All those talks we had?
But I never knew how you felt. You never told me ... but now I know."

Kate hesitated and started to lower the gun.  "You do?"

"Yes, now I know ... and I can help you."

Clark was standing directly in front of her now, and everyone in the
newsroom, including Lois, held their breath in fear and anticipation.
Clark was watching the gun barrel closely, waiting until he could reach it.
When, distracted by Clark's closeness, Kate finally lowered it an inch
more, he reached forward and grabbed it.  Kate let out a squeal of protest,
but quickly collapsed into his arms, sobbing.

The newsroom let our their collective breaths, and gave a prayer of thanks.
They watched as Clark handed the gun to Lois, and wrapped his arms around
the sobbing Kate.  Almost immediately, two security officers appeared at
his side, waiting to take her away.   Clark whispered something to Kate,
and she looked up at him with tears in her eyes.  She allowed herself to be
led away, still sobbing.

The officers took the gun from Lois and unloaded it.  "You'll be pressing
charges, I take it?" they inquired.

Lois and Clark looked at each other and nodded.  "Yes," Clark said quietly.
"We will... at least until I talk to her parents.  They should be coming
into Metropolis soon to be with her.  She needs help, but she's not going
to get it in jail."

As the officers left, Lois put her hand on Clark's arm. "It's OK," she said
quietly.  "You did the right thing.  She'll get help now."

Clark pulled his wife into his arms and held her tightly.  "Are *you* OK?
I'm so sorry I didn't get back sooner.  I never meant to put you in danger."

Lois shook her head.  "She never pointed it directly at me.  I think she
was using it more to make people take her seriously.   I'm fine.  Just a
bit shaken."

He cupped her cheek.  "The whole time, I kept thinking of what I could say
to gain her trust, but not betray yours."

Lois put her hand over his.  "Clark ... you didn't have to--"

"Yes, I did, Lois ... yes, I did."

As the elevators closed on the police and their charge, the newsroom slowly
returned to normal.  People had divided into small groups, talking with
nervous laughter about what had just happened.

Soon, Perry White's booming voice rang out over the newsroom.  "OK, people,
you all behaved admirably, but it's time to get back to work.  We have
deadline in 90 minutes, so let's get cracking!"

Staffers scattered in all directions, leaving only Lois Lane and Clark Kent
holding each other in the middle of the newsroom, oblivious to anything but
each other.

Only Ralph's very shocked voice could be heard over the din.  "You mean she
*wasn't* really his girlfriend?!?"

*****

TAG

*****

Lois Lane sat on the edge of her bed, talking on the phone.  "OK, mother
... I'm glad to hear that ... Well, have fun ... uh huh ... give Daddy a
kiss for me.   Bye."

Clark, already in bed, smiled and looked up from his magazine as she hung
up.  "Well, it sounds like your parents patched things up."

Lois pulled back the covers and climbed in to join him.  "Yeah, I guess."

Clark set his magazine on the night stand. "What's wrong, honey?  I thought
you'd be happy."

Lois curled up next to him, resting her head on his bare chest.   "Oh, I
am, in a way ... I guess I'm just starting to wonder if them getting back
together will make either of them happy for long.  There's just so much
history there.  My father gets a new secretary and starts working late, so
my mother assumes he's having an affair.  And my father, instead of
reassuring my mother, just tells her she's crazy and storms out of the
house. They say they've changed in the last twenty years, yet they keep
falling into these old patterns."

"They have changed somewhat--your father doesn't work as much as he did
when you were a kid, and your mother has the Superman Foundation now--she's
not just sitting home waiting for him anymore, building up resentment."

Lois had to agree. "You're right.  Mother is happier now than she was when
I was a kid."

"I didn't know them twenty years ago, but it does sound like they were in
love once ... maybe they can be again."

Lois smiled.  "You're such an optimist."  Then she sobered somewhat.  "I
believe that they love each other," Lois said slowly.  "But I don't think
they trust each other.  And without trust ..."

"... what kind of relationship can they have?"

"Exactly."  Lois looked up into her husband's eyes.  "That's why what we
have is so special, so strong.  Because we trust each other."

Clark cupped Lois's cheek with his palm.  "You never once doubted me, even
when the flowers and the letters started."

Lois put her hand over his.  "You're not that kind of man."

"And I never will be."  He leaned down to kiss her softly.

"Even when the spark is gone?"   Lois gave him a little smile, but it was
obvious there was a little bit of insecurity behind it. "Even when some
not-insane Kate Martin makes a pass at you, at a time when all I ask you to
do is take out the garbage?"

Clark grinned.  "Honey, trust me, the sparks fly every time I look at you.
They aren't going *anywhere*.    He then looked at her speculatively.
"You've been spending time with your mother."

Lois laughed.  "That obvious, huh?"

Clark chuckled with her, then softened.  "Lois, I would never ... I could
never ..." Clark paused, then continued sincerely.   "There has only been
one woman in my heart and my bed ... and she's here with me right now.
There will never be anyone else.  No matter what troubles we go through in
the future."

"I feel the same way," Lois said softly.  "I know we'll have
difficulties--all couples do--but I know we'll work through without
betraying the other's trust.   Like we did today."

Clark sobered.  "It was rough ... going down to the police station tonight
to press charges.  I appreciated you going down there with me, being so
supportive.  I felt sorry for Kate's parents, though."

"It was nice of them to thank us for keeping her safe.  They were concerned
about her, but they acknowledged the trouble she had caused for us.  I
thought that showed class."

"They seem like good people ... they are getting her transferred back to a
Kansas State Hospital tomorrow."  Clark sighed.   "I hope she can get the
help she needs.  It's such a sad situation."

Lois smiled ruefully.  "And to think I was wondering if Lex Luthor had put
her up to it to distract us from nailing him ... I almost wish he had, then
I wouldn't feel sorry for her."

Clark made a sound of disgust.  "I wouldn't put it past him, after all the
torture he's put us through over the years.  But it didn't work,
regardless.  I am now completely convinced that his clone story was a lie.
There is no way that in March 1994 they could have labeled the clone
project a failure, yet not six weeks later have produced a successful
clone."

"Not just a successful clone, but one that had time to learn enough about
Lex's business and personal life to pass for him without anyone suspecting
anything!" Lois pointed out.  "Every other clone we've run across has had
maturing to do, mentally.  The Lex that blew up the Daily Planet, that
rushed through his wedding to me  ... that was no child."

"No, it was him, that day in May."  Clark's eyes narrowed angrily.  "The
way he tormented me in the Kryptonite cage ... there was history there.  He
wasn't just trying to get me out of the way for the future; he was seeking
revenge for what I'd done to him in the past."

Lois shivered a bit at the memory.  The idea that Clark might not have been
able to escape ... to lose him before they had ever fallen in love ...
before they'd been married ...

Suddenly Lois looked up at her husband, troubled.  "I just thought of
something, Clark.  If Lex has been lying all along, then Beth is lying for
him."  Lois furrowed her brow.  "She's still a wild card ...  she seems to
love him, yet ... there's something ..."

"Maybe he's blackmailing her into supporting his story," Clark suggested.
"Remember last year, she told us there was some secret in her past."

"Yes, but she didn't want Lex to know that secret."

Clark shrugged. "If she lied about Lex being a clone, she could have lied
about that."

Lois sighed heavily.  "So trust no one.  We're back to that."

Clark rolled over and turned out the light, pulling his wife closer to him
as the darkness enveloped them.  "We'll get to the bottom of this, honey.
I don't know how yet, but we will.   Luthor has had the advantage this past
year, but no longer.   Dr. Klein is still working on decoding those files.
The more information we get, the more we can level this playing field.  I
will bring Lex Luthor down," he vowed.

Lois put her head on the pillow next to Clark's and ran her hand up his
chest.  "*We* will bring Lex Luthor down," she clarified.

Clark's eyes closed at his wife's gentle touch.   "I'd never be able to do
it without you," he said sincerely.  "The two of us together ..."

"... are stronger than either of us alone."

Clark smiled softly as he kissed her mouth, first softly, then with more
urgency.  "And together we can do anything," he murmured as he trailed his
lips down her neck.  "Together ... we are incredible."

"Incredible ..." Lois moaned softly.

"Incredible ..."

*****

FADE TO BLACK

THE END
______________

Author's Note:  I'd like to thank my good friend and fellow FoLC, Erin
Klingler, for her help on this story.   Ideas, dialogue and encouragement,
she does it all. <g>

Feedback welcome and appreciated:  Kathy Brown <kathyb@springnet1.com>


Characters in this episode are copyrighted by DC Comics, December 3rd
Production and Warner Brothers. No infringement is intended in any part by
the author or the Season 6 group, however, the ideas expressed within this
episode are copyrighted (c) 1999 to the author.