Chapter 12: Lois and Clark's Guidelines for Workplace Relationships

Lois's internal clock kicked in the next morning and she found herself staring into Clark's face, his eyes closed and his face relaxed save a slight smile crossing his lips. She lifted her hand, intent on brushing it across his cheek, before changing her mind at the last second in fear of waking him up. He really was adorable when he slept, she thought.

She instead snuggled in closer to him, burrowing her head into his shoulder, wondering if it was too much to hope for that she could fall back asleep. But even as she did so, she felt Clark's arms tighten around her waist, pulling her flush against him and verifying that she was not going back to sleep. Lois pulled her head back as he opened his eyes, full of sleep and happiness.

"I'm sorry I woke you," she told him softly, now brushing the hand across his cheek that she restrained earlier.

"Mm, it's okay," he said as he leaned into her touch. "I was sort of awake already; I just hadn't opened my eyes yet."

Lois wrapped her arm around his neck, rolling them so that his weight was on top of her as he leaned forward and pressed his lips to hers. "Should I even bother asking what time it is?" she asked between kisses.

"No," he breathed as his lips found the column of her throat. "Just accept that it's still early and we're going to be sleep deprived today."

Clark leaned up and looked at her then, a slightly dorky grin that she shouldn't love as much as she did, and she couldn't help but tease him. "Well, if someone would have let me sleep last night…"

"Uh huh, Lane. You have a fair share of the blame, too. I seem to recall someone deciding a few short hours ago that we needed to take a shower—together."

"Well, I—" Her intended retort was lost on his lips as she stared up at Clark, who had a look of complete innocence on his face but was doing things to her with the rest of his body that made her lose all coherent thought.

"That's what I thought," he laughed, before kissing her again. One kiss turned into two, and before he knew it, their kisses had turned into a heated melding of their bodies.

That is, until Hannah made it known she was awake.

The sound of crying over the baby monitor made Clark stop immediately, his head dropping to the pillow close to Lois's ear as he exhaled deeply. He felt, rather than heard, Lois's laughter in response as she ran her hands down his back in an effort to comfort him.

"It was bound to happen sooner or later," she whispered in his ear.

"I would have preferred later," he groaned, moving off her and starting to get up off the bed.

Lois stopped him as she reached for her tank top and shorts. "Let me," she told him. "Calm yourself down and I'll be back in a few minutes."

As much as he wanted to protest, Clark simply fell back onto the bed as he watched her leave the room and start to talk to Hannah as he entered the baby's room. He listened over the monitor as his daughter's cries subsided in reaction to Lois's attention, marveling once again at how wonderful his life has turned out in the face of everything that has happened.

He would be the first to admit that his first meeting with Lois was not one for the story books. She had, in fact, tried to shake him off as her partner and it had taken him standing up for himself and his credentials—along with some sweet-talking by Perry—to even get her to have a civil conversation with him. By the end of the day though, he knew all he needed to know.

For some reason, finding out she was a mother made all the difference in the world to him. It wasn't because he had mommy issues or anything weird like that. Instead, he remembered listening to her tell him about how she was able to understand her father's need to protect his daughters more once she became a mother herself. In that conversation, he discovered that while this woman was tough as nails and never let anyone work her over, she did so out of an overwhelming need to protect her son.

And it wasn't until he learned that he was a father himself that he fully understood what she meant.

Clark was brought out of his thoughts as Lois re-entered his room, cradling Hannah in one hand and holding a bottle in the other. "Okay Daddy," she smiled as she walked over to his side of the bed. "I changed her and put some clean clothes on her, so now you get to feed her."

He sat up and took Hannah, holding her in all the right places as he fed her the bottle. His daughter, who was now almost six months old, had almost a full head of black hair and was smiling more and more as the days moved on. She was also starting to make unintelligible noises, which Clark knew meant she would be talking soon.

Lois got into the bed next to him, snuggling up close and watching as he fed Hannah. "She'll be holding her own bottle before you know it," she said, almost to herself but gaining Clark's attention as the words fell out of her mouth.

"I could have gone without hearing that, Lois."

"What? I was just making an observation."

Clark shifted his glance from Lois down to Hannah, watching as his daughter sucked on the bottle while almost holding his hand that was on the bottle. "I like feeding her. It's one of the few things I feel like I get to do with her," he said in a soft voice.

"Look at it this way, Smallville. So she learns to feed herself—so what? All it means is that there will be a handful of new experiences to replace it."

"Such as?" Clark asked, somewhat disbelieving of what she was saying, despite the fact that he knew she was speaking from experience.

Lois snuggled closer to him on the bed and smiled, recounting some of the milestones from DJ's first year. "For starters, she'll start sitting up on her own any day now. And if I know you, you'll play the airplane game with her when she starts eating solid foods." She thought for a moment, ticking off even more moments, but stopped short when a thought occurred to her. "Why are you so worrisome all of a sudden?"

"I don't know. I just…" Clark paused, not sure how to voice his concern. "How do you balance it all—work, a relationship, and a child—without dropping the ball somewhere?"

A nervous laugh escaped Lois as she sat up and looked at him more directly. "I should remind you that I'm not the best person to ask that question. I dropped the proverbial ball, remember?"

"Says who? David?"

Looking down in her lap, Lois couldn't find it in her to meet Clark's eyes. "I'm not proud of the fact that my marriage failed, Clark. Believe me, I tried to make it work. I couldn't give up my career though, and that's what David wanted me to do."

"I would never ask you to do that; it's too much of who you are."

Lois finally looked up. "What we need to do then is figure out a system, one that allows us to balance everything."

Clark nodded in agreement. He took the time to set Hannah's empty bottle on the bedside table and put her over his shoulder before he continued their conversation. "Are you suggesting we develop rules of some kind?"

Relaxing her demeanor, Lois lay down on the bed and faced the ceiling, her mind now functioning on all cylinders. "I prefer to call them guidelines. Rules sounds so…"

"Domineering," he finished for her, knowing exactly what she meant.

Hannah chose that moment to burp, bringing out a hearty laugh in both Lois and Clark. He brought Hannah off his shoulder and cleaned her chin with the rag and moved so he was laying next to Lois on the bed, Hannah pushing herself up with her arms as she rested on his bare chest.

"So," he continued, "Lois and Clark's guidelines for—what exactly do we call this?"

"Surviving the minefield known as life."

"I like it," he laughed. "What's first?"

"Well, we're looking for a balance, right? So we should probably have something like giving 100 percent to whatever demands our attention at that moment."

"And how exactly do we determine that? Can you honestly say that you're going to postpone a meeting with the mayor just because I request some alone time with you in the Archive Room?"

"As tempting as that sounds," she laughed, turning her head to see a matching expression in his eyes, "work has to come first in that situation. So, work is work. Everything else is pushed aside except in an emergency."

"Does that reciprocate when we're here, being parents?"

"What do you mean?"

"It's only fair, Lois. If I can't steal you away into the Archive Room for a make-out session, then it stands to reason that we don't bring work home with us."

Lois's expression became strained. "Ever?"

"No, not ever. But do you really want work and the kids to be the only things we ever talk about?"

Lois sighed and agreed with Clark, knowing that he had a point. The truth was that they were work partners who were dating and both had kids of their own. If they were going to survive together, they needed to pay attention to all aspects of their lives, which included putting away being a journalist in favor of being a mom and a girlfriend when the time came.

"This was much easier when it was just work and DJ I had to worry about," she said.

"I know," he whispered, noticing the questioning look on her face as he did so. "The day we met, when you took me with you to the daycare to see DJ? I remember thinking that this was a woman who had really compartmentalized her life. Work was work, and being a mother was in no way related to that."

"Except it is. You might not have realized that then, but—"

"I definitely do now."

"I'm not nearly as put together as you think I am, Clark," she said, turning toward him so she was lying on her side. "I think the only time I feel completely sure of myself is when I'm at work. The rest of the time I'm constantly questioning whether or not I'm doing the right thing."

"Ah, Lois," Clark breathed out, a hint of laughter in his voice. "Don't look now, but you're doing something very right."

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Lois and Clark were barely in the door and at their desks on Monday before Perry poked his head into the bullpen and yelled, "Lane! Kent! Upstairs in my office in five minutes."

Exchanging curious glances and dropping off their belongings at their desks, they made their way to their editor's office. "Chief, you wanted to see us?" Lois asked as happily as she could at eight in the morning.

Perry motioned for them to enter his office and offered them a seat while he moved around to the front of his desk. Unlit cigar in his mouth, he leaned against the desk with his hands behind him. "I was hoping I could get an update on how your investigation is going." He looked at Clark. "Did you get anything new from that fundraiser Friday night?"

Clark glanced at Lois, knowing that she was going to be upset. Because of their new "guidelines," he had refused to talk about what happened when he was at the fundraiser. He knew it was only a matter of time before he would be forced to tell her, but he was really hoping it wouldn't be in front of an audience. "Other than the fact that Senator Vega is a major jack ass? No, I'm afraid I might have burned that particular bridge when he started bad-mouthing Lois."

Lois's head whipped in Clark's direction. "What? Why didn't you tell me?"

He opened his mouth to respond, but was cut off by Perry. "My guess is because he knew you would react exactly this way." Perry watched the expressions on their faces and the way their bodies were turned in toward each other from their respective chairs. "Tell me, Clark. Did you let on just how annoyed you were that he was talking down your girlfriend?"

"He's not—"

"We're just—"

They spoke simultaneously, each trying to deny Perry's accusation. He took in their almost identical expressions—eyes wide and mouths gaping—and couldn't help but laugh.

"Don't try to deny it, kids. The looks on your faces just now solidified any doubt I had."

Lois stood and began to pace around the office, not exactly sure how to proceed. What would Perry do if she admitted it? Frankly, she wasn't sure. "Listen, Perry. You may think you know what's going on, but you don't."

"And you seem to be under the impression that I'm reprimanding you. I'm not. But since you don't think I'm aware of what's really going on, please enlighten me."

Feeling more at ease, Lois came back to her chair and sat down. She shared a meaningful glance with Clark, who gave a very slight nod of his head, and made a definitive statement by taking his hand as she looked back up at her boss. "We are together, but we're not just fooling around—"

"I never said you were."

"If I could, sir," Clark said, interjecting himself into the conversation for the first time. "We made a very conscious decision to keep our personal lives private. Not advertising our relationship outside of the office is a major part of that."

Perry nodded and walked silently back behind his seat to sit down. He took the cigar out of his mouth, held it in his hand, and leaned back in his chair before finally addressing the two reporters sitting in front of him. "Both of you can stop acting like this is the Spanish Inquisition. I admit I'm not the biggest fan of office romances, but I'm going to turn a blind eye on this one."

Lois couldn't believe her ears. It was an understatement that Perry didn't like office romances—he despised them. He was famous for putting walls and even floors between couples who were using the Planet as their personal make-out sites. For him to ignore his own rule was unheard of.

"Why, Perry?" she asked.

Perry stood again and returned to the front of the desk, an amused expression now on his face. "As far as I can tell, no one else knows that you're together outside of work. I have to take into consideration that you're being mature and professional about it. And there's always the fact that you've been happier the last few months than I've ever seen you, Lois. My guess is that Clark here has something to do with that."

Clark glanced at Lois, a small smile coming across his face. He was admittedly happy that Perry wasn't going to fire them or even break them up as partners, but if that hadn't been his intention in telling them he knew about their relationship, what was? "Sir, do you mind me asking what any of this has to do with our investigation?"

"Ah, yes," Perry remembered. "This is a sticky situation you two have yourselves in with this investigation. The key is to make sure Vega doesn't find out you're part of it, which is why I want this whole thing expedited."

Lois adjusted her posture, trying to understand what Perry was asking of them. "What exactly are you saying, Chief?"

"I'm giving you two weeks. I want some kind of major breakthrough in two weeks, or I want you to drop it. There are way too many variables in this for my liking, and I won't knowingly put my reporters at risk like this." Perry walked behind his desk, waving his hand in a manner that clearly said they were dismissed. Lois and Clark got up and walked to the door when they heard his voice once more. "Oh, and kids? Anything you could possibly need to research is in the digital database; you don't have to go to the Archive Room."

Lois looked to Clark with dread before they each nodded and walked out of the editor's office. As they walked toward the elevator, Clark was thankful that they had used as much discretion as they had while at the Daily Planet. But apparently it wasn't enough if Perry found out, he thought.

Once they entered the empty elevator, he finally took Lois's hand and gave it a squeeze. When she met his eyes, he smiled and let out a deep breath. "That could have been catastrophic."

"Tell me about it. Perry has fired people for having office romances before. I'm frankly surprised he didn't break us up as partners."

"He still might after this investigation is over," Clark said, before noticing that they were approaching their floor. Releasing her hand, he looked to Lois. "Why didn't you tell Perry about your new source?"

"I will, but I want to make sure she has something solid for us first. And," she continued as they reached their desks, "I don't want to look like a fool if she turns out to be nothing but talk." Sitting down at her desk, Lois took her phone out of the middle drawer and checked her messages. When she finished listening to them a few minutes later, an aura of excitement overcame her. "I hope you don't have any plans for lunch, Smallville, because you get to meet my enigmatic new source."

"She contacted you again?" he asked, rolling his chair sideways.

"Says she has something that will 'make our heads spin.'"

Clark nodded silently, taking in this new development. He was still skeptical of this source Lois had stumbled upon. Sure, she'd given Lois some information that she couldn't have otherwise known unless she really knew what was going on, but it still sounded a little too convenient. And, he realized, Perry was right when he told them earlier that it was imperative that Senator Vega didn't know that he was being investigated. More important still was the necessity to keep Lois's name out of any information that did get back to Vega and possibly Mannheim. While he hoped that Vega would not endanger the life of his grandson and his grandson's mother, he knew he couldn't say the same for Mannheim.

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

"I'm going to run across the street for some decent coffee," Lois said some time later, feeling the need to move around from the nervousness she felt about just what Elizabeth had for them. "Want anything while I'm there?"

Clark shook his head and she made her way down to the ground floor, walking to the coffee shop that was almost directly across the street from the Daily Planet. As she waited for an opportunity to cross the street, she laughed to herself at a memory of Clark thinking she was crazy for walking to this place when the Planet served coffee free of charge. "It's not crazy to value your life," she had told him, and that had been the end of that.

Lois perused the board with the daily specials, contemplating what she wanted while she stood in line, when a voice whispered in her ear from behind her. "Don't turn around, Lois. It's Elizabeth."

"What are you doing here? I thought we were meeting for lunch," Lois responded, taking on the same hushed tone Elizabeth used. This situation was getting weirder and weirder, and it didn't do much for Lois's opinion of this person who had launched herself into this investigation without being asked.

"We were, but this coincidence makes things much less stickier. I think someone's on to me, Lois."

"Meaning?"

"Not ten minutes after I called you, a couple of Senator Vega's senior aides made a show of saying they were going to the same deli for lunch we were supposed to meet. It could be a coincidence, but we can't be too careful."

Lois felt Elizabeth slip something into her purse and started to turn around. "What's—"

"Don't look at it now," Elizabeth warned her. "And for the record, this meeting was by chance. I had intended to have the document sent to you by messenger, but then I saw you here and it made things a bit easier. Now there won't be a paper trail. I came to get coffee, just like you."

They fell into silence while the line continued to move, and Lois began to question the other woman's motives for helping her. "Why are you helping us, even when your life is possibly in danger?"

A short sigh, and Elizabeth simply replied, "You and I aren't that different, Lois. We both want to make the world a better place. We just go about it different ways."

And with that, a new lane opened at the coffee shop and Elizabeth moved forward to place her order, not once looking back in Lois's direction. Once she placed her own order, she pulled out her cell phone and quickly texted Clark.

To: Clark From: Lois 10:27 a.m. Meet me in Perry's office in 5 min. I'll explain then.

Lois paid for her drink and grabbed it once it was presented to her, mumbling a "thanks" to the barista as she hurried out of the shop. Whatever it was that Elizabeth placed in her purse was burning a hole in her pocket, and she was anxious to get to Perry's office so she could share it with both him and Clark. She had no idea what it could be, but she was guessing that it must be big if Elizabeth was now fearful for her life to the extent that she couldn't risk being seen sharing a meal with two reporters.

When she walked into Perry's office, she finally exhaled with relief in seeing both her editor and Clark were there waiting.

Perry, having a flair for the dramatic, jumped up from his seat when she entered. "What the hell is this about, Lane?"

"I'd like to know that myself," Clark interjected. "I thought you were just going across the street for some coffee."

"Lois, you're the only person I know who can go for coffee and get in trouble. I should have known that—"

"Chief! I didn't get in trouble. In fact, I might have that major break you were talking about this morning." She spoke with excitement, noting the stunned looks on both Perry's and Clark's faces as she told them what she had. She took a seat next to Clark and started digging in her purse, not exactly sure what Elizabeth had put in there at the coffee shop.

She quickly found the rolled up paper, held together with a rubber band, and held it out in front of her. The anticipation in the room was thick.

"Okay," she said, taking a deep breath. "I wasn't exactly forthcoming when we met this morning, Perry. I have a source, but I didn't tell you about her because everything she'd given me so far was circumstantial at best. She works in Senator Vega's office; her name is Elizabeth Brays. I had a message to meet her for lunch today, but when I went over for coffee she walked up behind me, put this in my purse, and told me not to look at it until I got back here."

"So why are you so sure this is that big break if you don't know what it is?" Clark asked.

"Because she was scared…for her life. Whatever this is, she thought it was important enough for us to see it and she was willing to go out of her way to make sure we got it."

"But why not wait until we met for lunch today?" Clark continued.

"She's under the impression that someone knows she's talking to reporters. She's not certain if they know—let alone if they know who she's talking to, but she's being cautious. She was just going to stand us up today, but then she saw me at the coffee shop and knew she could get us the information this way."

"Enough already," Perry insisted, his hands resting on his desk as he leaned over it. "Unroll that damn piece of paper and let's see if I have to set you on this story exclusively."

Lois took the rubber band off the oversized piece of paper and unrolled it, finding a few other smaller pieces within it as she did. She set them aside and focused her attention on the larger piece. She scanned it quickly, the blue lines intertwining on the white paper to form an intricate diagram. "Clark," she breathed upon realizing what they had in their possession.

Clark, who had been looking at the smaller pieces of paper they found, turned his attention to Lois. He took a look at the paper and gasped, the full effect of what was in front of them taking shape. "Is that what I think it is?"

"If you think it appears to be a blueprint for a BG-80 Toastmaster, then it's exactly what you think it is."

Perry stormed out from behind his desk, adamant on getting a good look at this major break. "Care to enlighten your dear editor?"

"The Toastmaster is a military-grade assault weapon. It's a newer version of the BG-40, which was originally designed by John Henry Irons when he worked for AmerTek Industries in Washington, D.C."

"Okay, so how does something like that end up in Senator Vega's possession, let alone available to a junior-level aide like Elizabeth Brays?"

"Well," Clark said, holding up the other papers, "according to these, there are supposed to be some shipments coming in the next few days. I'm confused by one thing, though," he said, shuffling through the papers. "Who's 'Ugly'?"

"Mannheim's nickname," Lois informed him.

Clark nodded, understanding covering his features as he realized the depth of their discovery. Perry, on the other hand, didn't waste any time. "I'm dumping off all your other assignments. I want you both on this non-stop until we have a Pulitzer Prize-winning article above the fold." He took his cigar and waved it back and forth between Lois and Clark. Whatever you do, always make sure that you know where the other is at all times. And if you go somewhere together, I want to know about it."

"Yes, Chief," they said simultaneously.

"Now get out of here. I'm sure you have plenty of phone calls to make."

Lois and Clark exited Perry's office and immediately started delegating. "Take this and go see Irons," Lois told Clark as she handed over the blueprint. "See if there's anything at all that he can tell you that would help us out."

"What are you going to do?"

"Surf the Internet. I'm curious as to why Senator Vega has this lying around his office."

With them alone in the elevator, Lois arched up and kissed Clark, overwhelmed by the happiness she felt at having a major break on their story.

"What happened to the guidelines?" he asked as she pulled away and straightened herself as the elevator doors opened.

"On hold until further notice," she told him, smiling back at him as she exited the elevator. "Plus, if you're going to break the rules, you might as well do it right."