Wounded Angels
By Lote <kestrel@pacific.net.sg>
Rated: PG
Submitted: February 2002



DEDICATION: 

To the loving memory of my mother who taught me to face 
death with a quiet dignity.

To S.K., sister of my heart, who showed me that life's 
challenges doesn't have to keep you down.

To J.C. who touched my heart when I least expected it.

To Merry and Tricia, my super beta readers, a million 
thanks for all their hard work, inputs and their 
encouragements in getting this story done. Thanks also to 
Roz Harvey for her edits in the initial parts of the story. 



And the seasons they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and down
We're captives on the carousel of time
We can't return we can only look behind
From where we came
And go round and round and round, in the circle game
-The Circle Game by Joni Mitchell.



'Boredom. Yes, that's the word. Not one newsworthy event 
for the past week,' Lois thought as she played with the 
pen. Her eyes had, without her knowledge, strayed to her 
fianc‚'s desk. 'And he's not here either. He must be 
enjoying his time in Smallville.' She sighed, wishing she 
could have gone with him. Perry had refused to let them 
take leave at the same time. Her thoughts drifted back to 
that day in Perry's office...

**********

"What! I'm not going to run this paper without at least one 
of my award winning reporters around. What if an important 
story breaks? No, Kent, you can go since you've not taken 
leave for more than half a year. Lois, you took a five-day 
leave nearly two months ago and have used up all your leave 
this year, so your request is not approved." He nodded as 
if that settled it. Actually it did, since he was the one 
calling the shots.

That didn't stop Lois from objecting, however. "Perry, you 
know why I took the leave. And I managed to get the scoop 
on the illegal organ harvesting of homeless people."

Both Clark and Perry shuddered; she had nearly been killed 
in the investigation. "On the records, it was a holiday 
leave. So no go, Lois," Perry countered. "Git, you two." He 
threw an apologetic look as he shooed them out of his 
office.

**********

Clark had not wanted to go without her. He was very worried 
about her, insisting that the objective of going to 
Smallville was for both of them to get away from all the 
stress and to talk. But she insisted that he took this 
vacation seeing that he had not had any for a long time. 
They quarreled heatedly before Clark gave in to her. 
However, he had left for Smallville with a heavy heart, and 
only after extracting promises from her to take better care 
of herself. 

'He's not going to be happy if he knew about the 
nightmares,' Lois thought. She sighed once again. At least, 
Clark was going to be back next week. Who was she trying to 
kid? 'Next week, no, even today would be too long,' she 
thought. She missed him even though he called her often 
from the farm.

"Lois!" Perry bellowed. "Get in here!"

'Can't he stop shouting for once? He's getting worse. What 
does he want anyway? If he asks me another time whether 
I've got anything for him, I'm going to explode! Doesn't he 
know what a slow week this has been. Furthermore, none of 
the others are getting any news either. Why doesn't he pick 
on them? Why me?' she ranted in her thoughts.

"Lois! Are you getting in here or do you need a formal 
invitation?" Perry sounded very irritated. 

For the third time in the last five minutes, she sighed. 
"Yes, Perry. I'm coming."

As soon as she was in his office, Perry told her to close 
the door and take a seat. "Now, I know how slow this week's 
been and that you've been bored out of your mind," he said.

"And out on my feet, too.  I've been looking everywhere for 
a story.  Every source I've contacted has come up with a 
big, fat zero for me. So what's your point, Perry?" Lois 
interjected.

"Well, a friend of mine contacted me yesterday. He was 
asking for my help."

"And..."

"His daughter almost died, trying to escape from a 
prostitution ring. The additional twist to this story is 
that the ring is operated by faculty members of Metropolis 
University. These people approach students who are looking 
to make some pocket money and offer them a job. That's how 
my friend's daughter was caught in the web. She needed 
extra pocket money because her father had been laid off 
recently. She thought it was just an escort service. 
Unfortunately, it wasn't until she had worked on a couple 
of escort jobs that they sprung the other aspect of the job 
to her. In one of her escort jobs, they drugged her drink 
and took some photos that weren't exactly PG. They used it 
to blackmail her by threatening to send it to the 
university. She was afraid of being thrown out of school 
for abetting pornography."

"Why doesn't your friend go to the police? His daughter 
should be able to identify these people."

"When I said she almost died, I meant the doctors are 
giving her a fifty-fifty chance of survival. At the moment, 
she's in a coma in the Metropolis General Hospital's ICU."

"So, the police have been alerted?"

"Well, it's a police case but they are filing it under 
mugging and rape cases. After all, she was found in a dark 
alley ..."

Unnoticed by Perry, Lois flinched at the words 'dark 
alley'.

"...near her home, her belongings scattered and valuables 
missing. The police had been given no motivation to suspect 
otherwise. As for her father, my friend is afraid for his 
family and his own life. A couple of thugs had been around 
to his place. They beat him up and threatened to kill his 
family if he ever tried to contact the authorities."

"Hmm, so your friend had no idea as to who might be the 
masterminds behind this ring?"

"No. That's why I'm sending you in to investigate."

"Only me?"

"What? Lois, my ace reporter, cannot handle it on her own?" 
Perry teased her gently. Then realizing what he said, he 
felt chagrin. "No, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said it."

Lois smiled softly at Perry's teasing and his recantation 
of it. A few years back, she would have been offended by 
the tease. In fact, she would probably have jumped at 
working on the story by herself which made Perry's comment 
true. Now however, after being 'trained' to work with a 
partner, it felt strange to work alone. 'Clark's not just 
*a* partner; he's *the* partner,' she thought. 

She understood why he recanted. His worry for her the past 
few months were evident from the assignments he had given 
her. However, he was unable to grant her request for leave 
because of office policy. She had used up her leave not 
only on the last investigation, but also on recovery time 
after it. She reassured him with a smile.

He acknowledged it with a nod. "Actually, honey, I'm 
sending you and Clark. I spoke to him last night."

"Does that mean I should wait for him to return before 
going undercover?" she asked, feeling that it would be 
better for her cover to be in place before Clark entered 
the picture.

"Unfortunately no. The semester starts in a few days time. 
I've pulled some strings and got you enrolled into the same 
courses as Kaylie."

"What's Clark's cover?"

"Having the qualifications needed by the History 
Department, they've accepted his application for a Faculty 
position."

She groaned. "Perry, let me get this straight; I'm to be a 
student but Clark's a Faculty member. That's not fair," she 
complained.

"Now, now, Lois. They're just covers. You are more likely 
to be approached by the syndicate than Clark. Besides, we 
needed someone in the Faculty level who could mingle 
around."

"I know," she sighed. "Perhaps I should talk to your friend 
first."

"Here's his contact number." Perry handed her a piece of 
paper.

_______________

It was a tiring day. 'Be careful what you wish for, it 
might come true,' Lois thought. It was certainly true. Just 
this morning, she had wished for a newsworthy assignment. 
Well, she definitely got one and now she was exhausted.

As she turned on the water to fill her bath, she thought 
about the conversation she had with Perry's friend, 
Michael. He showed her a couple of the photos they had used 
to blackmail his daughter and the threatening emails she 
had received when she tried to back out. He did not look 
good at all. His broken nose and his bruised face bore the 
truth of what Perry told her. This man had been thoroughly 
beaten up, and yet, he had the courage to come forth to 
ensure justice was done. His last words to her still rung 
in her mind. "Ms. Lane, get these people before they 
destroy another life."

He hadn't been as concerned about vengeance as he was about 
the safety of his family and others who shared his 
daughter's fate. "They are trapped. No way out, Ms. Lane. 
If they tried, they'll probably end up dead."

She sighed, turning off the water and putting some of the 
relaxing aroma therapy bath soap into the water. Quickly 
shedding her clothes, she immersed herself in her warm 
bath. True to the laws of probability, within seconds the 
phone started ringing. Having anticipated the call, she had 
brought the phone into the bathroom with her. "Hello, 
sweetheart." She heard his beautiful voice on the line.

"Hello yourself, handsome," she replied, her earlier heavy 
feelings seemed to disappear the moment she heard him.

"What are you doing?"

"Having a relaxing bath."

"Hmm, what's wrong?" 

She shouldn't be surprised at how well he knew her, but she 
was. "How did you know that?"

"Well, you never take baths unless you are uptight about 
something. This is about Perry's friend, right?"

"Yes," she sighed once again. "I talked to him today and 
saw his daughter. Clark, she's only twenty. How inhuman can 
these people get?"

"Lois, you've seen worse..."

"No!" she interrupted him. "Clark, I know I've, no, we've 
seen worse things. But this, this really is personal."

"Lois..."

"Clark, Lucy would have gotten into this kind of trouble if 
Superman hadn't been around to save her. Kaylie's about her 
age and so are most of the other girls. I've seen what they 
did to Kaylie; it's inhuman. She would have been better off 
dead," Lois interrupted passionately.

On the other end of the phone, Clark sighed as he listened 
to his fianc‚e. She was emotionally involved and that was 
definitely trouble. He knew he could fly back to Metropolis 
to check on her. However, he also knew that she'd be 
insulted if he came back early. "Lois, just promise me that 
you'll be careful. I'll be back next week."

"I will. Don't worry, I'm not going to do anything drastic. 
Besides, I don't think things are going to heat up anytime 
soon. From what Perry's friend said, they only approached 
the girls after they are very confident of them. As for you 
getting back next week, well, I miss you."

"I miss you too. I could fly back tonight?"

"No, enjoy the stay with your Mom and Dad. We've been very 
busy lately, on top of the demands for Superman. You need 
the break, honey."

"All right, you win. Mom and Dad send their love, by the 
way."

"Likewise." She smiled as she tried to picture Clark's 
parents. They were the sweetest folks ever, ...well 
Jonathon was. Martha, on the other hand, was as sharp as 
tack.

"Don't stay in the tub too long. I don't want to have a 
prune for a fianc‚e." Clark's teasing brought her back to 
the present. 

"Oh, you," she said, laughing. "Goodnight. Love ya."

"Love you too. Goodnight and sweet dreams." She heard the 
phone click indicating Clark had put down the phone at his 
end. She wished that he was here, but this was an 
opportunity for her to prove that she wasn't dependent on 
anyone to get a story. Still, her heart wasn't committed to 
proving her independence.

She let herself soak for a few more minutes before getting 
ready for bed. Even Superman's wishes could not chase away 
the nightmares she had that night. She saw the disfigured 
face, only it wasn't Kaylie's. It was Lucy's. She woke up 
in a sweat. Although she tried, she couldn't get rid of 
that particular image. For the rest of the night, her sleep 
was haunted.

Morning found her groggily trying to make coffee. 'Oh, I 
give up!' Exasperated, she threw away the ruined coffee and 
stalked to the bathroom to prepare herself for work. She 
stopped by Starbucks on her way to work to get that crucial 
injection of caffeine into her bloodstream. Once again she 
wished Clark was around; then he would have made her coffee 
just the way she likes it. 'You're so pathetic, Lois," her 
devilish inner voice told her. 'Come on, this is the chance 
for you to prove that Lois Lane doesn't need anyone.'

"Buzz off," she replied out loud, gaining strange looks 
from the rest of the customers. The serving girl at the 
counter looked at her as if she was crazy. "Oops, sorry," 
Lois said to her reassuringly. "I was just talking to 
myself."

That earned her another strange look as the girl passed her 
the coffee. Lois, despairing of improving the situation, 
decided to retreat, and so made her way to the Daily 
Planet. When she reached there, Jimmy informed her that 
Perry was looking for her.

"You wanted me, Boss? I've always wanted to say that," Lois 
said by way of greeting when she poked her head into 
Perry's office. She was grinning.

"Are you high or something?" Perry asked her. He looked at 
her critically. She had bags under her eyes and was not the 
impeccably dressed reporter he'd known. Add those things to 
the silly grin on her face, he didn't know what to think.

"Yeah, high on caffeine." She sighed as she proceeded to 
sit, even without Perry's invitation. "Sorry, I didn't get 
much sleep last night, and so I'm feeling a little 
lightheaded. I went to talk to your friend and saw his 
daughter."

"Yes, he told me. Here, these are for you. All the info and 
documents that you'll need are there. Lois, please be 
careful. I don't want a repeat of your last investigation," 
he said, concern very much evident in his voice.

"Thanks Perry. I will, I don't want that to happen either." 
She shuddered, remembering that last investigation.

**********

She was the only one in the alley as she squeezed in 
between the crates and boxes. It was cold, and her tattered 
clothes did not provide much protection from the weather. 
She heard footsteps approaching. 'Oh no, please God, don't 
let them find me,' she prayed fervently as she monitored 
the footsteps. As they got nearer, she could hear their 
voices. They were searching for her, turning over crates, 
boxes and trash cans. 'Please, let Clark find me before 
they do.'

Her body trembled, due to the cold, shock and loss of 
blood. She had barely managed to escape from where they had 
been holding her. Her side ached where a bullet had grazed 
her during her escape. "Come out, come out, wherever you 
are," one of the men said in a sing-song manner. "You 
cannot escape from us, you know. We'll get you. Don't 
worry, we will."

She shivered at the evil laughter accompanying those words. 
She could hear them getting closer to where she was hiding. 
'Clark, where are you?'

**********

Perry looked at her worriedly. "Honey, I could give this 
assignment to someone else, if you like." He was 
reconsidering whether it was wise to have given it to Lois. 
She had still not recovered mentally from the various 
events that had happened to her this past few months; 
first, her sister had been involved with this modeling 
agency that was actually a front for a 'white slavery' 
ring. Then, her mother had been attacked by robbers and had 
fallen into a coma for a week. Lois had stayed by her side 
throughout the ordeal except for the time she spent trying 
to track down the culprits. Then of course, there was the 
last investigation. If not for Clark, Lois would have had a 
nervous breakdown long time since.

"It's all right, Perry. Hey, at least I'll get to go back 
to school," She tried to joke, all the while trying to 
suppress the panic rising inside her. Clark had been 
pestering her to go and see a psychiatrist to talk about 
her experiences but she thought she could deal with them on 
her own. Now though, she wasn't so sure. 'No, I can't have 
such doubts, not until this is over. If I give in now, I'll 
never be able to finish this investigation.'

"Perry, I think I'll go home to get ready for this," Lois 
said. Perry nodded and she left.

________________

'Met. U., how long has it been since I've been in her 
hallowed halls?' Lois thought as she walked across the 
campus green to the Brown Building which housed the 
Registrar's office. 'A long time, or so it seems, since an 
eager young graduate left here to make a name for herself.' 
She smiled at the memories of the younger Lois. All gung ho 
to take on the world through her writings with no thoughts 
of starting family ever crossing her mind. Yes, she had 
come a long way, indeed.

However, anyone who saw her would not have taken her as a 
successful reporter at all. Her faded jeans with torn 
knees, her shockingly bright yellow T-shirt, her cool 
sunglasses and her bulging knapsack made her look very much 
the young and eager student of yesteryear. She blended in 
well with the rest of the youth around her.

As she approached the Brown Building, she geared herself up 
mentally to play her role. She was Alexa Thompkins, twenty-
four. She was older than the average new students because 
she had been supporting her ailing mother since high 
school. Her mother had passed away less than a year ago 
leaving her heavily in debt. She managed to get a 
scholarship to attend Met. U. but that was not enough to 
survive on, much less pay back her debt.

Her background matched the typical profile of the 'victims' 
approached by the syndicate. She was certain that it would 
hold water under scrutiny. Perry was a pro at arranging 
this kind of thing. She wondered briefly what name Clark 
would be given. He had enough names as it was already. 

Before she could get the door, it swung open to reveal an 
attractive man in a well-tailored suit. She would have 
ventured a guess that he was in the late-thirties or early 
forties. He smiled at her before indicating for her to 
enter. "Thank you," she said, charmed by the gentlemanly 
act. It reminded her of Clark.

"You're welcome," he said with a smile and a nod, before 
walking out the door.

Lois turned to the bored clerk at the registration counter 
who scowled at her. "Well, what do you want?" the clerk 
snapped.

Asking for patience, Lois gave him a smile and walked up to 
the counter. "Hi, my name's Alexa Thompkins. I was told 
that I should come here to register for my courses."

"Well, in that case, here, here and here." He shoved stacks 
after stacks of forms at her. "You are to fill them in and 
give me your admission letter and other documents."

She gave them to him and started filling up the forms. 
'Well, this aspect of school life hasn't changed,' she 
thought sarcastically. "Err..., could I ask, what should I 
fill in here?"

The guy turned back to her and snorted. "How would I know 
what you have to fill in? Just complete them." He went back 
to processing her documents. Lois gritted her teeth, 
reminding herself not to lose her temper. After all, as a 
student, she should be meek.

Soon, she finished all the necessary forms. At least, the 
ones she thought were necessary. She was then instructed to 
go to Jefferson College to enroll in her courses. After 
enrollment, she proceeded to Elizabeth Hall where she would 
be staying for the duration. If she had really been a new 
student, she would have been confused by the rapid 
instructions and directions they gave her. As it was, they 
tested her patience sorely. Of course, if Clark had been 
around, he would have said that it was a good practice in 
patience. As if she needed any. Well, okay, she did, but he 
didn't have to rub it in. 'What am I doing? Clark's not 
even here.'

She was assigned to a single room. 'At least, I don't have 
to share it with anyone. I couldn't stand my roommate in 
college. This is a bit dismal, though.' Looking around the 
small room with only one window overlooking the backyard of 
the hall, she took in the single bed and small writing 
desk. The mattress was thin and she was sure that the bed 
sagged. The desk was metal and accompanying it was a metal 
chair with torn cushion. Above the desk, she spotted a book 
rack. Oak, and with intricate pattern carved into it, made 
it the only redeeming thing in the room.

"Oh well, it's better than my last accommodation," she 
sighed as she recalled the alley she had slept in.

**********

She drew closer to the fire as the night grew colder and 
wrapped her ragged coat around herself more tightly. Some 
of the others smiled nervously at her. Others tried to set 
up their shelters out of cardboard and other scavenged 
material. "Here," an old man said, thrusting a bottle of 
whiskey at her. "This will warm ye."

"Thank you." She took the proffered drink and took a swig 
out of the bottle.

"What led a nice young woman like ye out onto these 
streets?" the old man asked curiously. They talked, well 
into the night, sharing the bottle of whiskey. He helped 
her improve the shelter she had built earlier. When they 
were too tired to care about the cold anymore, they went 
back to their respective corners and slept in the makeshift 
shelters. She learned a lot about being a homeless that 
night.

**********

She went out to the old beat-up pickup, which she borrowed 
from one of her neighbors to stay in character, to get her 
things. A few other students staying at the hall 
volunteered to help her and soon they'd managed to make the 
room more hospitable. What was even better was that she 
made a couple of friends among those who had helped. They 
took her out to lunch and introduced her to other students. 
It was a great way to be reintroduced to campus life.

That night, however, she found herself missing Clark a lot. 
It was the first time since his vacation that he didn't 
call her. She took comfort in her memory of the phone call 
they had had the night before. She also fervently hoped 
that she would not be plagued with nightmares. After 
tossing and turning in bed, she decided that since she 
couldn't sleep, she might as well snoop around.

She changed into her sweats, took her trusty torchlight and 
grabbed her keys before leaving the room. The hallway was 
quiet, as most of the students were in bed, asleep. Those 
who weren't were in the rec. room watching the midnight 
shows or talking quietly. She slipped past the rec. room 
and out the door. She didn't know exactly where to go but 
Kaylie's old dorm would do for a start. Pretending to jog, 
she took a circuitous path towards Moulmein Hall, where 
Kaylie had been staying.

Once there, she hid in the bushes, waiting for the 
opportunity to slip in. It came when one of the residents 
opened the door to leave. She managed to catch hold of the 
door before it closed and went in. Just like at Elizabeth 
Hall, most of the residents were asleep and no one saw her 
entering Kaylie's room. She looked around, trying to adjust 
to the darkness. Since the room overlooked the walkway and 
the road, Lois didn't dare to switch on her torch. Instead, 
she would have to make do with the light from the street.

As her eyes adjusted, she saw a pretty little room with a 
lot of warmth and love in it. Kaylie's dad mentioned that 
she had been staying there for the past three years as her 
family was always on the move due to his work. She had 
decorated the place lovingly as was indicated by the 
beautiful wallpaper that she had used to outline the area 
around her bed, by the numerous pictures of her family on 
the book racks and the posters of sunsets and sunrises that 
she had hung around the room.

Lois went to the desk and opened the drawers, hoping to get 
some kind of a lead. The room looked untouched, which was 
amazing since she had expected the ring leaders to have 
sent people to ensure that no discriminating evidence could 
be found. Unfortunately, when she went through the drawers, 
she couldn't find any clues. No journals, no photos, no 
nothing. All that was there were things related to Kaylie's 
school work. "Duh! What do you expect?" Lois scolded 
herself for not realizing it earlier. "She wouldn't have 
left a clue lying around in the open. Let's search through 
her work again."

'Why am I starting to talk to myself, anyway?' she puzzled 
when she realized that she had spoken aloud. Shaking her 
head, she fine-combed through all the material in Kaylie's 
desk. In the middle of her search, exhausted as she was 
from the lack of sleep and the full day she had, she nodded 
off to sleep on the comfortable bed. This time, her wish 
was granted; her sleep was free from nightmares.

_______________

A banging door somewhere down the hallway woke her up from 
her sleep. Lois felt disorientated for a while. 'Where am 
I? This doesn't look like my bedroom,' she thought. 'Oh 
yes. It's Kaylie's room. Kaylie's room! My goodness, I felt 
asleep in her room! Now, how do I get out of here without 
being noticed? And what if someone noticed my absence at 
E.H.?' Her thoughts babbled as she lapsed into the old, 
long unused abbreviations for the buildings around campus. 
'Lois, this is a fine way to start your investigation. 
Stupid! Ah, no use scolding myself, better think of a way 
to get out of here and back to E.H. before anyone notices 
anything.'

With that thought in mind, she quickly cleaned up the mess 
she had made of Kaylie's room. While she was doing that, 
she once again noticed the pictures on the bookrack. In the 
early light of dawn, she studied the pictures. In them, 
Kaylie looked so young and happy. More importantly, she 
looked so innocent. Lois made a promise, there and then, 
that she would uncover this ring and stop them from ruining 
other innocents.

After she finished, Lois opened the door slightly and 
peered out. 'Well, the coast is clear. Now if only I knew 
whether the ground floor is clear as well. Never mind, if 
I'm caught, I'll just have to wing it.'

Taking a deep breath, she slowly opened the door further 
and slipped out. Walking softly down the hall toward the 
stairs, she kept a vigilant lookout for any surprises. She 
could hear a shower running. The person who had banged his 
or her door must have woken up to take a shower. She crept 
downstairs and, seeing the hallway empty, took off from 
Moulmein Hall as fast as she could. All the while, her 
heart was racing and she had to stem her fear at being 
caught. Even though the situation was different from the 
one in her last investigation, she couldn't help feeling 
afraid. It was silly since in the latter situation, it was 
a life and death matter while this time wasn't. 'Well, 
fears are supposed to be irrational,' she consoled herself. 

'But it doesn't make sense. I've been in such a situation 
before. Yes, there had always been an element of fear, but 
this time, I'm blowing this out of proportion,' another 
part of her countered.

'Forget it. This is not the time for this debate, just get 
back to E.H. fast," yet a third voice reminded her.

Back at Elizabeth Hall and her room, she sighed in relief. 
She had jogged back to E.H. and found the place to be quiet 
as the residents still slept. She hoped no one noticed that 
she hadn't slept in her room last night. Since the sleep 
was refreshing and the adrenalin was still pumping, she 
couldn't quite relax. So she prepared herself for school 
and then sat down to jot down what she found from Kaylie's 
work.

Suspicions were cast on two subjects Kaylie had taken; 
Physics and Computational Science. From what Lois had seen 
from her school records, --- Michael had given her a copy 
of them --- Kaylie had been struggling in these two 
subjects for her first two years in Met. U. However, in her 
third year, her marks had improved by leaps and bounds. 
Even with extra effort, this amount of improvement seemed 
impossible.

'Urgh, Physics and Computational Science. I hated high 
school Physics and what the heck is Computational Science, 
other than it has something to do with computers. It wasn't 
introduced during the years I was in campus,' Lois thought, 
disgusted at the subjects she had to take. 

A knock on her door startled her. "Hey, Alexa, are you 
awake?" the person outside asked. 

"Yeah, I am. Door's unlocked, come on in."

Jung Hoon, a Korean guy who had kindly helped her 
yesterday, pushed open the door and stepped inside. "Looks 
like you are prepared for school," he remarked, seeing the 
packed knapsack and her clothes for the day lying on the 
bed. 

"Yep, I was too excited to really sleep. You know, it's 
been my dream to come to Met. U." She gave a shy smile.

"Yeah, I know what you mean. The last day I was in Korea, I 
couldn't sleep at all. Hey, what classes are you taking?"

"Well, Physics, Computational Science, Philosophy, and 
History."

"Wow, that's very diverse!" Jung Hoon said, impressed. 
"Four subjects, can you cope?"

"I'll try my best. Because of my age, I'm trying to catch 
up as much as I can."

"Yes, but don't kill yourself over it. Anyway, I'm in your 
class for Computational Science. So, if you need anything, 
just holler, okay?"

"Thanks for the offer. I definitely will take it up."

"Come on. We better head down for breakfast. I want to take 
a morning stroll after."

"Why don't you go ahead? I've already had my morning jog, 
and I need to bathe first. I'll catch up with you later."

"Okay. See ya."

Lois nodded and Jung Hoon left. 'Well, at least someone can 
help me out in one of the subjects. I wonder how Clark will 
be able to conduct his part of the investigation if his 
department isn't involved? But then again, we cannot write 
it off just because a member of the department is not a 
suspect. Who knows how big this thing is? I think we need 
more information on the girls already trapped; what classes 
they had in common, their grades, etc...I wonder if Jimmy 
could help?'

Her mind raced along those lines as she went about 
preparing for school. At last, she was ready and headed 
down to breakfast. Several of the residents who befriended 
her yesterday were there, and they exchanged greetings. 
After breakfast, the first class was Physics 101. She had 
checked earlier that the person teaching it was the same 
person who taught Kaylie's last class. This was one of the 
suspects, and she wondered what to expect.

"Welcome to Physics 101, everyone. I'm Prof. Andrew 
Stanton, your guide for the rest of your journey, this year 
at least, into this marvelous world of Physics. You can 
call me Andy." Lois was shocked to see the very person who 
had held the door for her at the Brown Building. He had a 
sincere, engaging smile and looked very eager to teach them 
all about the 'marvelous world of Physics' as he passed out 
sheets of paper to the class. 'Oh spare me this baloney,' 
she thought sarcastically. After taking one, she passed on 
the stack of information sheets as she listened to him 
outline the course.

She glanced down at the sheet. 'What the heck is Quantum 
Mechanics? Something to do with the show 'Quantum Leap'? 
And Relativity Theory...I'm not Einstein, heck I'm not even 
Dr. Klein. This is more his area than mine.' She sighed, 
catching the attention of Prof. Stanton.

"You there, something the matter?"

She looked up. "No, Andy. Nothing's wrong," she said 
quickly, giving him a hopefully reassuring smile. He didn't 
look reassured, but nodded anyway. He went on to explain 
where they could find the material needed for the course, 
the examination and assignment details and so on. They 
finished about an hour and a half later.

Lois, who was going to escape after being bored out of her 
mind, was called back. "Ms. Thompkins, isn't it?" Stanton 
asked.

"Yes, but call me Alexa."

"Very well, Alexa then. You looked lost just now. Do you 
need any help?"

"Err..." Lois hesitated. "Actually I've been out of school 
for quite some time. As you can see, I'm a lot older than 
the other students. I'm finding it difficult to adjust."

"Well, don't hesitate to approach me for help, as I 
mentioned in class. You've been given my contact number, my 
room number and the consultation hours. If you need help 
beyond that, I'm sure we can arrange something."

"Thank you, Andy. I'll do that. I better go, my next class 
will be starting soon."

"Okay. Go on then."

She left, wondering if she had made a mistake thinking that 
he could be a suspect. He looked decent and seemed to be 
genuinely concerned for his students. But then again, it 
could be a fa‡ade. Lex Luthor was a good example of that. 
On the outside, he was a philanthropist but in actuality, 
he was a master criminal. No, it was best that she kept 
Andrew Stanton on the list until proven otherwise.

_______________

She sat down in front of the terminal in the computer lab. 
Not many students were around at this time. 'Only four in 
the afternoon and I'm already exhausted,' she thought. As 
she logged into the campus network, she recalled her day.

After the Physics class, she had a History lesson. The head 
of the History department came in to let them know that 
their actual lecturer would not be in till next week, a Dr. 
Jerome Kelton. She apologized on his behalf, informing them 
that he was a new member of the department and this was to 
be his first class at Met. U. The Head also passed out a 
curriculum outline and contact information for Dr. Jerome, 
assuring them that he was in email contact even though the 
actual class would start next week. Lois, of course, knew 
just who Dr. Jerome Kelton was and had to smile when evil 
thoughts of distracting her fianc‚ in class crossed her 
mind. Talk about seducing your teacher. 

Lunchtime came around. One good thing about E.H., the 
services included all three meals. Therefore, she joined 
Jung Hoon and the others for the noon meal before 
proceeding to the computer lab. Evelyn, a senior resident 
of E.H., had given her instructions on how to register for 
her own email account and network access. 'You'll need it 
since you're taking Computational Science. Just go to the 
lab and ask for Gary. He's the most helpful lab tech 
around,' Evelyn had said.

Unfortunately, Gary was not around, and Lois got stuck with 
the lab tech from hell. It took her almost three hours to 
get her account. But here she was, finally able to log in. 
Not wanting to risk the possibility of anyone tracing her 
email correspondence, she fired up the Internet and 
connected to the Daily Planet's LAN system. She used her 
Daily Planet's email account to send a request to Jimmy to 
help her look at the tiny list of names that Michael was 
able to provide her. She needed him to retrieve their 
university records and any other information he could find 
on them. She also requested if he could do a background 
check on Andrew Stanton.

After sending the email, a sense of mischief arose within 
her. She hadn't had one of those for quite some time, with 
that morning's evil thoughts as an exception, and the 
feeling took her by surprise. Still, she couldn't resist. 
Taking out the email address of Dr. Kelton, she quickly 
composed a note to him on her school account. Less than 
five minutes later, a reply arrived in her inbox. She 
gleefully opened and read it.

"Dear Ms. Thompkins, I understand your concern that you've 
been out of school for a long time. But I think you should 
sit in for a few lessons before deciding whether you need 
private tutorship. Do not put yourself down too soon. If 
you have difficulty after we've started, then we can bring 
up this issue again. Yours Sincerely, J.Kelton," the email 
read.

She grinned and replied. Once again, the answer to her 
email came forthwith. It read, "Alexa, if that's what you'd 
like me to call you, I believe you are entirely too eager 
about this class. That's a sign of a good student. However, 
since I won't be needing any student assistant, I must 
decline your offer. Yours Sincerely, J.Kelton."

Lois laughed at the answer. She decided to send just one 
last email and waited for the reply. This time, Dr. Kelton 
sounded very angry. "Ms. Thompkins, even if I didn't have a 
fianc‚, that suggestion is very inappropriate. I hope you 
will reconsider taking my class, because I would not 
tolerate any impropriety. J.Kelton."

She didn't bother answering that email. Instead, she left 
the poor fellow reconsidering his decision to take up the 
faculty position at Met. U. 'Ah Clark, that was fun. Now 
for some real emails,' she thought as she sent her partner 
an email using her Daily Planet account, updating him on 
the investigation and other more mundane things. She left 
out her nightmares of the night before and her inability to 
sleep last night, knowing that it would only worry him 
further. She felt a little guilty for the omission though. 
'Well, I did get a good night sleep last night even if it 
was quite short.'

That email invoked an immediate response. "Lois, 
sweetheart, I'm glad that you had a good night sleep, even 
though the place you chose to fall asleep left something to 
be desired. I hope you won't do it again; my heart can't 
take it. And please be careful in your investigation. You 
know that I'll only be a shout away, right? I'll check in 
with Jimmy about the information on Dr. Stanton and the 
girls and get back to you A.S.A.P. Do not do anything rash 
for now. Wait till I'm there.

"Honey, I missed talking to you last night, too. But you 
are right, we cannot continue to call each other. Let us 
communicate this way in the mean time. Everyday, around 
this time, I'll be online to answer query from my 
students...so send me a message if you are free, for this 
week at least. I love you too. Clark."

She smiled at the tone of the email. He was worried about 
her, and that made her feel safe, even if it seemed 
illogical. Didn't someone say that feelings are supposed to 
be illogical? She replied to reassure him that she was fine 
and wasn't going to do anything rash, at least not by her 
standard. 

By the time Lois finished all the correspondence, it was 
nearly dinner time. Walking back to Elizabeth Hall, she 
started planning her next move. "Alexa, there you are. What 
took you so long?" Evelyn joined her as they walked toward 
E.H. 

"Oh, Gary wasn't there and it took ages for the other guy 
to set up my account. It was so frustrating," Lois replied, 
not exaggerating her irritation at all.

"Ben, was it? Yes, he's hopeless. He wouldn't have been 
hired if not for his connection to the President of Met. 
U."

"But that's nepotism," Lois protested.

"Yes, but who wants to offend the president?"

Lois had no answer for that, and they both lapsed into 
silence. 

That night, Lois settled in to sleep, her thoughts flying 
all the way to Smallville towards her partner. He was 
really very worried for her, she knew. He tried to tone 
down that concern in the email, but not very successfully. 
Furthermore, he had been feeling guilty for his inability 
to rescue her before she got hurt. Not that she held it 
against him, she thought as she drifted off to sleep...

**********

'Clark, where are you?' The desperate thought flashed 
through her mind as the men got nearer to the place she was 
hiding. At this time, she wished she were telepathic. She 
burrowed deeper into her hiding place, hoping against hope 
that they'd not find her.

One of the men kept taunting her, "Come on out, little 
mouse. Why don't you give us cats here a little challenge?" 

Lois thought furiously, weighing her options. Her side 
still ached and she was losing more blood as time passed, 
even after her efforts to stop the flow. If she tried to 
make a break out of her hiding place, she had very little 
chance of surviving. But then, she would have no chance of 
surviving if they found her. Better to have little than to 
have none.

She prepared herself to make the break. As one of the men 
started to touch the crates that hid her, she gathered 
enough strength to push the crates and boxes away. They 
crashed on top of him, startling his companions. Lois took 
the opportunity presented to rush out of her place and made 
a dash towards the opening of the alley. Shots rang, and 
time suddenly seemed to slow down to almost a halt. In slow 
motion, she turned back to see the man under the crates 
struggling to get up. One of his companions was helping him 
and the other held a smoking gun in his hands. Impossible 
as it may seem, she saw the bullet drilling its way through 
the air straight at her.

"Noooo..."

**********

"Noooo...!" Lois jolted awake. Cold sweat covered her whole 
body as she shook uncontrollably. Her breathing was still 
shallow and her heart was beating furiously.

A loud knock on her door made her jump, as she realized the 
sound was not that of a gunshot. "Alexa, are you all 
right?" the speaker outside asked, concerned.

Lois hurried to her door and opened it. Her next door 
neighbour stood in flannel pajamas looking at her 
worriedly. "Hi, I heard you scream. Is everything all 
right?"

"Hi Maggie. Yes, everything's fine. I just had a nightmare. 
I'm sorry if I woke you up." 

Maggie looked at her, unconvinced. She noted that Lois was 
still shaking and her clothes were drenched with sweat. She 
shook her head. "Alexa, I don't think you are all right. 
Look, you're drenched. Why don't you go and take a warm 
shower, and I'll pop into the kitchen to make you a hot 
drink?"

"Maggie, I..."

"Don't worry about it. It's fine. I heard from the others 
that you just lost your mother. I know how that feels. 
Besides, we are neighbours, right?" Maggie waved Lois's 
protests away.

Lois gratefully accepted and went to shower and change. 
When she returned, Maggie was waiting with the promised hot 
drink, chocolate of course, having changed Lois's bed 
sheets for her. "Now, there you go. I know you'd not want 
to talk about it tonight, but feel free to tell me 
tomorrow," Maggie said with a grin. "I'm taking psychiatry 
for my major, you know."

"Thanks a lot, Maggie." 

Maggie waved it away with a smile and left a warm, sleepy 
Lois who drifted once more to dreamland. This time, though, 
the dreams were pleasantly chocolaty in nature.

________________

"Hey sleeping beauty! Wake up!" Maggie popped her head in 
through the unlocked door. Lois, who was dreaming of 
swimming in a pool of chocolate treacle, struggled to get 
up. "Who? What?...Oh Maggie. What time is it?"

"Seven, and breakfast is about to be served. How'd you 
sleep?"

"Fine. Thanks for your help last night."

"Nah, no problem. Now, get up and come down for breakfast." 
Maggie left with a grin.

At the breakfast table, Lois found Maggie and Jung Hoon 
waiting for her. "Hey, there," Jung Hoon greeted her. "Grab 
some of those pancakes before they run out. They are the 
best."

Lois did as suggested and slipped into the seat next to 
Maggie. As she sipped her coffee, she looked around. Groups 
of E.H. residents and some of their friends were hanging 
around, their breakfast plates almost empty and mugs 
cradled in their hands. It was a nice warm feeling to 
listen to happy chatter and gossips. 'Very much in contrast 
with my nightmare last night.' With that thought, a 
depression came over her. 'No, I mustn't give in to it. 
Focus, Lois. Focus. This investigation needs all your 
attention.' She shook off the heavy feeling and tucked into 
the heavenly pancakes.

Maggie watched Lois as she wolfed down her pancakes. "Wow, 
you've quite an appetite."

Lois grinned and said, "After last night, I think I burnt 
more than half of my energy reserve."

"What happened last night?" Jung Hoon asked, confused.

Maggie looked at Lois, indicating it was her story to tell. 
Lois turned to Jung Hoon. "Well, Maggie played the part of 
the dashing white knight to my damsel-in-distress. 
Actually, she heard me screaming from a nightmare and came 
running. Helped change my sheets and even made me hot 
chocolate."

"Must have been quite a nightmare."

"Yes, and Alexa promised to tell me this morning." Maggie 
turned expectantly to Lois.

"Hey, I did no such thing. Really guys, it was just your 
normal, run-of-the-mill nightmare. Everyone has them now 
and then." Lois tried to put off her friends' curiosity.

"I don't think so, Alexa. No normal nightmare would cause 
you to wake up drenched in cold sweat."

Lois sighed, as her mind raced to make up a believable 
story. "All right, I was dreaming of my mother."

"You've not gotten over her death?" asked the psychiatrist 
in Maggie.

Lois nodded and asked plaintively, "Can we not talk about 
it?"

Both Jung Hoon and Maggie shifted uneasily before nodding. 
They weren't too comfortable about the subject either.

The three friends made their way to the Red Building, where 
all their classes that morning were being held. When they 
reached the building, Maggie left to attend her psychology 
class, leaving Jung Hoon and Lois to the mercy of their 
Computational Science tutor.

Lois was anxious, as once again, she was having the same 
tutor as Kaylie. She wondered if it was a coincidence or 
something that Perry looked into when he arranged for her 
cover. However, knowing Perry, she'd not likely to find 
out. Jung Hoon mistook her anxiety for nerves since she had 
confided that she knew next to nothing about the subject. 
He kept reassuring her that the course should be easy, and 
that if she had problems, he was more than willing to help.

Ms. Endora Sims was nothing like Dr. Andrew Stanton. At 
first glance, she would be dismissed as a nerd. With thick 
horn-rimmed glasses, hair pulled backwards and tied in a 
bun, skinny and a beak-like nose, she seemed like a nervous 
character. Her pacing and wringing of her hands further 
reinforced this image as she spoke to the class. Not once 
did she make eye contact with anyone, preferring to talk in 
a mouse-like voice to the walls beyond. 

Lois could not quite believe that Ms. Sims, like Dr. 
Stanton, would be one of the faculty members involved in 
the ring. She just seemed too timid for such ventures. Once 
again, Lois had to remind herself not to judge a book by 
its cover. She wished that Clark was around for her to 
bounce ideas with. This investigation was becoming more and 
more complex by the moment. She had clues pointing to two 
unlikely suspects. She had a list of names that she 
couldn't identify. She had a partner who was missing in 
action and above all, she had no idea how to break this 
case. 'Not a good sign, Lois.' 

Lois left the class with a pile of notes on Assembly 
Language which to her were just a bunch of zeros and ones. 
Of what significance could zeros and ones be, she asked 
herself. Not when lives are at stake. She had to be more 
patient, this case would take a lot more effort on her 
part, especially since she had no idea how big this thing 
was. Not looking where she was going, she bumped into 
someone. Papers would have flown all over the place if not 
for the person's fast action, actually extremely fast 
action. Lois looked up to find a very familiar face in a 
familiar suit grinning down at her.

Superman presented her with the papers he had rescued. "Ms. 
Thompkins, isn't it? I'm sorry to have caught you 
unawares," he said with a slight smirk.

She was surprised, and remembering her 'prank' yesterday, 
groaned. "How did you know my name, Superman?" 

"Oh, a friend told me. Have a nice day, Ms. Thompkins," he 
replied, a knowing grin thrown her way. He couldn't help 
adding in a whisper, "And I hope you aren't planning to 
seduce all your tutors for better grades."

Lois could only stare after him as he flew off. Maggie, who 
saw the incident, approached her and asked in an awed tone, 
"Wow, that was Superman. What did he want with you?" 

"I don't know. I literally bumped into him and he helped 
save my papers from flying off. Then, he left."

Maggie was a little jealous of the opportunity presented to 
her new friend. "At least, you managed to talk to him."

"Hmm," Lois answered. "Anyway, I'm off to the library. Want 
to come along?"

Maggie made a face and shook her head. Taking that as a no, 
Lois waved a goodbye and went off, still wondering about 
Clark's appearance. She knew her fianc‚ would not have 
risked approaching her just for something petty as letting 
her know that her prank hadn't worked. The only thing she 
could think of was that he had to have been there to pass 
her something. 'Of course, the papers!'

She searched through the papers, a work which paid off when 
she found a stack of research on Dr. Stanton and the girls 
on the list. Under the cover of studying, she perused the 
material. It looked like the girls had a few things in 
common besides their background. Firstly, they had been 
borderline students when they came to Met. U. All of them 
improved their grades tremendously either in their second 
or third year. 

What was even more interesting was that they had either 
Physics or Computational Science background. However, their 
tutors or lecturers differed. Jimmy, being the 
conscientious researcher that he was, included the details 
on the various faculty members involved with these girls. 
As a side note, he apologized to her for not being able to 
provide more information on the faculty members at such 
short notice, but was working on it. 

'Now, we are getting somewhere.' Lois smiled as she leaned 
back and massaged her tired neck. Once again, she longed to 
have Clark around. Thinking about Clark, she wondered if he 
had noticed the bags under her eyes or that she had lost 
weight. Then again, this was Clark; he noticed everything 
about her. She was sure he would have said something to her 
if they had not been surrounded by people. As it was, she 
could probably expect him later that night.

Lois knew she could no longer put off telling Clark about 
her nightmares. In a sense, it was a relief since she had 
been feeling very guilty for keeping a secret from him 
after their promise not to keep secrets from each other. 
However, she didn't want to make him feel guiltier than he 
already was. Somehow, even though she had not confided in 
him, Clark sensed that she was troubled. Still, he was too 
much of a gentleman to push her to open up when she wasn't 
ready. That was one of the things she loved about him.

Still for the past two months, he had been hovering near 
her. And when she said hovering, she literally meant 
hovering. For the first few nights after she was released 
from hospital, he would show up outside of her windows, 
concerned for her well-being. They had taken to sleeping 
together because of it. However thus far, they've managed 
to resist the temptation to make love. Not that she minded, 
of course. They were not yet ready for it. Yet, his mere 
presence had been able to chase away the bad dreams.

It was only when he left for Smallville that the dreams 
started. They were not always as intense as last night's 
but they were not mild either. In many of the nightmares, 
she found herself reliving her escape or the taunts of the 
men searching the alley. She had never gotten as far as she 
had gone last night. Lois wondered if the fact that the 
dreams were progressing was significant. She hoped so. She 
wondered what was it about the last investigation that 
disturbed her peace of mind so greatly. She had been in 
other life threatening situations before, so why this 
particular one?

Lois shook her head, trying to rid herself of the thoughts 
crowding her. She told herself firmly that she should not 
be entertaining such thoughts, not when she had an 
assignment to complete. Talking about assignments, she 
groaned as she remembered the assignment given by Ms. Sims; 
the class was to write an Assembly Language code to 
retrieve two numbers and add them up. A simple assignment, 
the mouse-like tutor had said. 

Just then, her stomach growled. 'Lunch time.' Lois packed 
all her stuff and proceeded to E.H. for lunch. She crossed 
her fingers and hoped that Jung Hoon had returned for 
lunch. She needed his help for the assignment...wait, what 
was she thinking of? 'Duh, Lois, are you galactically 
stupid or something?' she scolded herself. 'This is the 
perfect opportunity to talk to Endora Sims. It would 
establish me as a poor student in the class and give her 
motivation to offer me a position just like the other 
girls.'

________________

Later that night, Lois sat at the sorry excuse for a study 
desk, trying her best to work on her assignments. Her 
philosophy lecturer had thrown a long list of books at them 
to read. A mere drop in the ocean of knowledge, he said. 
'Yeah, right.' Lois curbed her impulse to throw him to the 
gallows. The guy irritated her; of all her tutors and 
lecturers, she would have suspected that he was part of the 
syndicate. Unfortunately though, he wasn't. He never taught 
any of the other girls, being a new Faculty member himself. 
'Still, let's put him on the list,' her evil side suggested 
with a smirk. Before she could response, a tap sounded on 
the window.

On hearing the expected tap, Lois looked up to see her 
fianc‚'s face peering in. He was wearing dark clothing. 
Opening the window, she gave him a brilliant smile. She 
watched him impatiently as he struggled to enter through 
the little window. It was difficult to wait to feel his 
arms around her...to feel that she had come home. 'For 
once, I know where my home is.' Her eyes misted with tears 
as she thought of the years she had spent trying to find a 
home. Neither her family nor her boyfriends were able to 
provide that for her. Not until Clark came along. She 
thought of how fortunate she was to have Clark. Not many 
were as fortunate as she was to find someone with whom they 
could feel a sense of belonging. 

Still, she waited until he was steady on his feet before 
swiftly walking into his embrace. As his arms closed around 
her, she felt her cares and concerns fall away from her. 
She felt safe. They stood just so for what seemed like an 
eternity as she soaked in his presence. Finally, she looked 
up, meeting his concerned gaze. Their lips met. It was a 
kiss meant to tell him just how much she had missed him.

Clark broke off the kiss somewhat reluctantly, still 
keeping his arms about her. She felt thinner. "Hi honey. 
So, you were expecting me, huh?" He smiled when she nodded. 
"I guess I'm becoming predictable. Honey, what've you done 
to yourself? Didn't you promise me to look after yourself 
better?"

Lois sighed. She was right, he had noticed her appearance. 
"Clark, I need to tell you something. Shh...wait till I'm 
finish, OK?" She led him to the bed and forced him to sit. 
"I don't want you to feel guilty about this. After all, 
I've been telling you over and over that it's not your 
fault."

Now Clark was even more alarmed. He was about to speak when 
Lois forged ahead. "Clark, I've been having trouble 
sleeping without you. My sleep's been plagued by 
nightmares. Not just any nightmares, these were about my 
captivity and later escape. To make matters worse, I 
haven't been able to force myself to eat, except for the 
last few days. The food here's good and the company's 
friendly. Do you know that the cook's simply a genius? If 
only I was rich, I'd pay him to cook for me everyday. Oh, 
sorry. I know, I know. I was babbling again, right?" She 
suddenly realized that she had gone off on a tangent when 
Clark looked almost dazed.

She then continued, "I'm sorry I haven't told you about it 
earlier. Like I said, I didn't want you to feel guilty. You 
don't have to deny it, Clark. I know you have."

Clark pulled her down on his lap and cradled her, neither 
of them speaking for a long time. Finally, Clark whispered 
into her hair, "Tell me."

Lois, who had nearly fallen asleep by this time, lulled by 
the comfort and safety she found in his embrace, shifted 
her position to a more comfortable one by forcing him to 
lay down on her bed. She then stretched herself on top of 
him. He automatically placed his arms around her waist as 
she tucked her head between his chin and shoulder blade. 

"Last night's the worst one yet," she started in a small 
voice. "I woke up in a cold sweat and if not for Maggie, my 
next-door neighbor..." She shivered as she remembered her 
dream. Clark tightened his embrace, but did not speak.

Lois nuzzled at his throat, inhaling the scent that was 
uniquely Clark. She loved the smell, so much so that she 
had a few of Clark's shirts and sweaters in her closet to 
be pulled out and slept in when she missed him. The last 
week was definitely one of those times. She then continued, 
"They were searching the alley and I was trapped behind 
those crates. This time, I managed to make a run for it. 
However, I woke up just as I was dreaming that the bullet 
was flying toward me." She sighed, finally looking up into 
his concerned face. "The whole time, I was thinking 'Where 
was Clark?'"

Clark flinched at her remark, even as he kept his tight 
hold on her. He used his power to float them above the bed 
and then resettled back with him reclining on the 
headboard. "Lois, I really wished I had been there on time. 
I wished a million times since then that I had the ability 
to time travel..."

Lois put her fingers against his lips to stop him. "Clark, 
it wasn't your fault. There's something I finally realized 
this morning when I thought back to the nightmare I had 
last night.

"Clark, for the past couple of years, you've been there for 
me every time and any time I needed you. It is to an extent 
that I've taken your being there for granted. That's not 
what I should be doing as an investigative reporter, Clark. 
I can't afford to be overly dependent on others, not even 
you, without losing the edge. It doesn't mean that it'll 
affect our relationship in anyway. In fact, I feel safe 
whenever you are with me. I feel that at long last I'm 
finally home. But that investigation woke me up to the fact 
that I was relying too much on you to save me.

She stopped him before he could protest. "I know that you'd 
try your best and you did your best then too. However, 
there'll be times when it's not possible for you to help me 
and I need to realize that. That was what happened in that 
investigation, I took for granted that you'd be there as my 
safety net. And when you weren't, I felt bereaved, 
abandoned. No, Clark...," she stopped him again when he was 
about to say something. 

"Again, it wasn't your fault. It was mine. Mine for 
assuming that I, the reporter, had exclusive rights to 
Superman. Even as your wife, which I hope to be one day, I 
will have to share you with the rest of the world. How 
could I then imagine that you have to be there for me as my 
bodyguard every time?"

She ran her hands through his hair and gave his clenched 
jaws a kiss, hoping to relax him. She knew how badly this 
was affecting him. She wished she could talk as good as she 
wrote. Unfortunately, she was never good at expressing her 
emotions verbally. It wasn't a good idea to be emotional 
around her parents. They'd just use it as another weapon 
against her. No, she learnt early to keep her feelings to 
herself. That way, no one could hurt her. Though now, such 
defense mechanisms put her at a disadvantage. 

Clark laid back, letting her do whatever she wanted with 
him even though he wished that he could say something. Lois 
looked so small and fragile as she tried to open up to him. 
He knew that she wasn't finished and he should let her 
finish. After all, this was what he had been waiting for 
the two months since she was shot and almost died. He had 
known that something was bothering her, but was reluctant 
to push her, knowing how fragile she was emotionally.

"I almost died back there in that alley. If it wasn't for 
your timely arrival, Clark, I would have bled to death, if 
not worse. They wouldn't have cared, after all, they were 
just interested in my organs." They both recalled that last 
few seconds.

**********

"Nooooo!" Time seemed to be moving ever so slowly for Lois 
as she found herself rooted to the ground, staring at the 
bullet, coming ever closer. People said that when you're 
about to die, your whole life seemed to be flashed at you. 
The same thing was happening to her. She did not feel the 
impact of the bullet into the left side of her chest, 
barely missing the heart. She did not feel the pain 
shooting through her whole body nor the fall that she took 
on impact nor the blood spurting out of her.

No, she felt none of those things. Instead, she felt almost 
calm as she watched her life passing by her. Her childhood 
days which were spent trying to gain her dad's approval and 
helping her mom in her drunken state. Her life at Met. U. 
where she first fell in love and was betrayed. Her time at 
the Planet before Clark; Mad Dog Lane was her name. And 
Clark! Oh, how much time she had wasted when she could have 
been with him earlier. How much she had taken him for 
granted. All her regrets, her mistakes, as well as her 
joys, her triumphs passed before her. Time seemed to have 
stopped or was it that time seemed to have sped up. She had 
no way of knowing. Was she dead?

"Nooooo!" From seemingly a distance she heard a voice 
screaming. A familiar voice. She struggled to 
consciousness, wanting to tell that voice of what she'd 
learnt from her little sojourn into the afterlife. 'Please, 
let me be able to tell him!' she pleaded. To whom, she had 
no idea; to God, perhaps?

She felt herself being picked up into the familiar embrace 
and then she knew no more.

**********

Lois was roused from her remembrance by Clark's tightening 
hold. It was as if he was trying to stop her from leaving 
him. If only he knew that she could never leave him. She 
couldn't walk away from him even if she tried. 

"Clark, you know I love you, right?"

He nodded, but couldn't speak past the lump in his throat. 
The recollection of her near death had him very frightened 
that she would be gone one day. Then, what would be his 
fate? Without her, he wasn't whole. Could he live on with a 
piece of him missing? Without his heart and soul?

"Clark, I..." She was about to say more when there was a 
knock on her door. The knock took both of them by surprise. 
They immediately got up and separated, as Clark gave a 
glance to the door.

"Looks like an Asian guy," he whispered to Lois.

"That'll be Jung Hoon," she said, somewhat reluctantly. 
"You have to leave."

He nodded. "But I'll be back later. We need to finish this 
conversation, Lois."

"Yes, I know. Bye." She kissed him, before turning toward 
the door as another knock was heard. Clark swiftly climbed 
out of the window and flew off.

"Wait up. Let me get decent," Lois called out. She looked 
around to see if there was anything that she needed to hide 
before opening the door. "Hey, Jung Hoon."

"Hi Lois. I was wondering if you needed help on the 
assignment Ms. Sims gave us," Jung Hoon stammered out, a 
little flustered. He had something in his hands and it 
wasn't the assignment sheet. 

"Oh." Lois finally realized what he was holding; a box of 
chocolates. 

Jung Hoon followed her gaze and flushed. "Here," he said, 
thrusting the box to her. "I thought you might care for 
some chocolates. My mom posted me a lot."

Lois didn't really believe him but let it pass. She thought 
it was sweet of him, however she didn't care to lead the 
poor guy on. So she decided to let him down gently. "Thanks 
Jung Hoon. However, I can't really accept these."

"Why not?"

"Jung Hoon, I...I'm involved with someone."

He looked down at his feet, slightly embarrassed. "I'm 
sorry. I didn't know. Maybe I should go."

Wanting to make him more at ease, she invited him in. "It's 
all right. I do really need help on the assignment. So if 
you don't mind, I'd like to take you up on your offer." 

With the scene behind them, they spent about an hour on the 
assignment before he left and shared the chocolate that he 
had brought. 

________________

A tap on the window woke her up from her state of half-
sleep. She immediately got up to open the window. However, 
Clark didn't come in. Instead, he asked her to get dressed 
in warm, dark clothing. The implication was clear, they 
were about to do some breaking and entering. She grinned at 
the thought. Superman, breaking and entering. But it wasn't 
Superman doing it, it was Clark Kent and Lois Lane.

When she had settled comfortably in his arms, he turned to 
her and apologized, "Sorry, Lois. I got held up, rescuing a 
sailing boat off the coast of Florida. Then as I flew back, 
I had the idea to search Dr. Stanton's apartment. Have you 
looked at Jimmy's notes on him?"

"I glanced at it but nothing seemed to leap up at me."

"Well, for the most part, he seems clean. However, there is 
one tiny detail which could be our break. His wife is a 
silent partner in a holiday agency touted for its services 
to the rich and famous. Jimmy checked out the agency 
earlier today after I passed the information to you. It's 
known for arranging unusual holiday tours suited for each 
client and comes with excellent services. Guess what one of 
the services is."

"An escort service."

"Bingo!"

"Clark, the Stantons might be in," Lois said, a little 
worried.

"I flew by their place earlier. No one's at home. Do you 
want to do this?" Clark asked, concerned.

"Yes, sure I do. But we haven't ..."

"Finished talking. I know. We'll do it later, sweetheart. I 
promise."

Lois smiled and nodded. Clark had always kept his promises.

A few minutes later, they arrived at the Stantons' 
townhouse. Alighting on the balcony, Clark checked around 
to ensure that no one saw them. Lois went forward to work 
on the locks. "I get the feeling that this is too easy."

"Lois, let's not question our luck," Clark said with a 
smile. It was just like Lois to doubt when things were 
going their way.

"Do you see any security system we need to disable first?"

"Nope."

"Exactly. If you were a criminal, would you leave 
incriminating things laying around without any way to 
secure them. In fact, even if you weren't, you'd still have 
a security system. What kind of sane person does not have a 
good security system at home? They must be so na‹ve, the 
kind of mentality that makes crime more rampant."

Clark smiled at the patented Lois babble. It was good to 
hear it. There had been little of such babble in the last 
few months. "Lois, let's just go in and check it out. If we 
come up with nothing, at least we tried."

"That's just so you. Clark, you've..."

To shut her up, Clark captured her upturned face and 
planted a kiss on her lips. "Come on. Or should I take 
over?"

She glared at him. "Not fair." Turning back to the locks, 
she finished picking them with a flourish and opened the 
door with a bow. "After you, sir."

Clark suppressed a chuckle and proceeded inside. 
Unfortunately, Lois was correct. They did not find any 
evidence to link the Stantons to the syndicate at all. 
Still, Clark planted a few listening devices, which Jimmy 
had supplied, in strategic locations. Jimmy had volunteered 
to monitor the devices. Hopefully, they might pick up 
something of use. They'd barely left the townhouse when 
they saw the Stantons returning.

"Whew, that was close." Lois snuggled closer to her fianc‚ 
as he flew them back to her room.

"Yes, but it's like old times," Clark grinned. "Now, don't 
tell me it didn't get your adrenaline pumping?" 

Answering the knowing glance thrown at her, she said, 
"Nope, didn't do anything to me. Working with you, on the 
other hand..."

"Sweetheart, that's a privilege I'd never want to give up."

"Hmm." She was drifting off to sleep as he flew them 
slowly. For the first time in a long while, she felt all 
was well with her world. They were going to talk and this 
investigation was a very interesting and challenging case. 
Yes, she was at peace at long last.

A few minutes later, she was roused from her state of semi-
sleep when they arrived outside her room. When she climbed 
in, a doubt came to her, "Are you...?"

"Yes. Didn't I promise?" 

She nodded and moved away from the window, making way for 
him to enter. "Clark, we need to discuss the case first. 
Could...?"

"I'll stay here until just before dawn, honey." He 
reassured her.

"Thanks!" She swiftly hugged him, and just as swiftly, 
turned away to get the collection of her notes on the 
investigation. They discussed late into the night. Clark 
managed to extract promises from her not to put herself in 
too much danger while he's not around. In return, she had 
him convinced that he need not check on her all the time. 
They worked out a way to contact each other, at least for 
this week while he's not officially on the campus. 

It felt good to be on a surer footing with regards to their 
partnership. He had been handling her with kid gloves these 
few months and even if she had been someone who didn't mind 
being handled, the kind that she was subjected to was too 
much. Between him and Perry, she had felt rather 
claustrophobic. It was the reason she had insisted that 
Clark should go home to Smallville, even without her. Not 
that she hadn't wanted to go with him. But at least this 
way, she felt less smothered.

A thought came to her out of nowhere. In the midst of all 
the discussion, she suddenly asked, "Clark, how did you 
know that I was Alexa Thompkins?"

Clark blinked, not expecting the question at all. He should 
have, since it was just like Lois to change topics in the 
midst of conversations. His mind had to reorient itself 
before he could answer. "Well, Perry told me." It was more 
a question than an answer.

Lois raised her eyebrow, and replied, "I don't think so. 
Perry never told me your identity and I'll bet that he 
didn't tell you mine either."

Clark gave her a sheepish grin. "OK, so I got it out of 
Jimmy." Then slowly, the grin turned into mischievous. 
"Actually, what I told him was that there was this student 
who volunteered to help me out, if you know what I mean. 
And I'd like to know more about her before I take her up on 
her offer. Jimmy was only too willing to help."

Lois screeched and launched herself on him. "Clark! You 
didn't! You wouldn't dare!" She attacked his most 
vulnerable spot and tickled him. 

"Alexa! Are you all right?" Maggie's voice came from the 
door. 

Clark groaned and Lois's first thought was 'Not again'. She 
got up and motioned Clark to stay out of sight. Opening the 
door a little, she peeked out sheepishly.

"Hi Maggie, sorry to wake you up. Maybe, I should be 
requesting another room."

"Don't worry about that. Are you OK?" Maggie frowned.

"Yes, another nightmare. But not as bad this time. Sorry 
Maggie," Lois stammered out, not really liking the fact 
that she was lying to someone who was concerned for her.

"Are you sure?" 

"Yes, don't worry. Go back to sleep. Thanks again."

Maggie nodded and went back to her room next door. Lois 
sighed softly as she closed the door. "Clark, don't do that 
next time," she scolded him.

"Me? It was you who screeched. Is that the girl who helped 
you last night? I should thank her."

"Yeah, I know. I feel so bad about waking her up twice in a 
row. And this time, it wasn't even a real emergency."

"Makes you feel like the boy who cried 'Wolf', doesn't it?" 
Clark agreed, as he took her into his arms and floated them 
to the bed.

"Hmm, yes. I had a friend like Maggie once during my days 
at Met. U.. She was an exchange student so we only had one 
semester together. We tried to keep in touch but ..."

"I know what you mean, honey. Even when your friends are in 
the same city, it takes a lot of effort to keep in touch."

They laid down together with Lois on top. She turned to 
face him. For a while, neither spoke as they thought of all 
the friends they've lost along the way and those still 
around. "You know, I didn't really have any good friends 
while growing up. There was Lucy of course, but she was a 
sister. I'm not saying that sisters can't be friends. I'm 
sure there are many sisters out there who are best friends. 
It was just that in our family, it was difficult for us to 
even talk much less bond."

"Yes, I know. I had friends in school and around town, but 
none that I could be close to. Lana and Pete were probably 
the closest friends I had."

"Oh Clark, your secret must have been such a burden when 
you were growing up all those years," Lois said, saddened 
by Clark's youth.

"It's all right, honey. Now, I have you. You're my best 
friend. What more can I ask?" Clark hugged her.

"You're mine too. Yes, what more can we ask? Someone said 
that to be in love with your best friend is the most ideal 
thing in a relationship."

"And that's exactly what we have."

She nodded in agreement, laying her head contentedly on his 
chest. Before either of them knew it, they had drifted off 
to dreamland.

________________

"Honey, wake up."

"Two more minutes. Please. Call Perry and tell him we'll be 
late," Lois muttered and went back to sleep.

Clark had to smile. This was something he missed when he 
went home to Smallville without her. That aside, he was 
feeling guilty this morning because he had not managed to 
keep his promise to continue their talk. Well, if Lois 
wasn't too mad or decided to go back into her shell, they 
could talk more tonight.

He had decided when he woke up that he wasn't going to 
spend one more night apart from Lois. Besides, it wasn't as 
if he couldn't fly to and fro in just a few minutes. Why 
hadn't he thought about that earlier, he wondered. 

Shaking his head to clear those thoughts away, he attempted 
to wake Lois up a second time. "Lois, wake up. I need to 
leave shortly."

"Hmm," she mumbled, struggling to open her eyes. "What is 
it? A call for help?"

"No, honey. It'll be dawn soon, and you wouldn't want 
Superman to be caught coming out of a window of Elizabeth 
Hall, would you?"

That woke her up. She finally realized where she was. "Oh, 
Clark. We fell asleep." She sounded upset.

"I'm sorry. It's my fault that we..."

"No, not your fault. We were both tired. Can we talk 
tonight?" Lois asked, shyly.

"Yes." Clark smiled and gave her a morning kiss. "I need to 
leave but I'll be back tonight."

"Bye. Say hello to your parents." Lois followed him to the 
window and watched him flew away. Deciding that she had a 
few more hours, she went back to sleep. The bed smelled of 
Clark, enough to keep the nightmares away.

She woke up that morning feeling more refreshed than any 
day since she was hospitalized. Somehow, the day seemed 
brighter and she could smell the fresh air. 'Where did that 
come from? This is Metropolis, there's no fresh air in 
Metropolis,' she wondered.

'Oh girl, you've got it bad,' a little voice remarked.

'Well, I think it's more than that. The talk must have done 
something to her,' another voice chipped in.

'Quiet down, both of you. You are both correct,' Lois told 
them as a bright smile dawned on her face, rivaling the 
brightness of the day. Jung Hoon and Maggie were waiting 
for her at the same table as the day before. They looked at 
her with concern and were a little confused when they saw 
her bright smile.

"So?" Maggie started, once Lois had settled down with her 
breakfast.

"Yes?" Lois answered cheerfully.

"What she means is that you look a lot better this 
morning," Jung Hoon clarified.

"Well, I had a good night sleep." 

"I thought you had the nightmare."

"It was a mild one. I slept like a log after that."

"Glad to hear it." Maggie nodded.

"Maggie, thanks a lot for being concerned. I've not had 
many friends who would have been concerned about me," Lois 
stated reflectively.

"Hey, that's before. Now you're one of us. A resident of 
Elizabeth Hall. We take care of one another here." Maggie 
grinned at her.

"Still, I appreciate it."

Soon the three friends finished their breakfast and Jung 
Hoon suggested a stroll. Maggie declined because her class 
was about to start. Lois hesitated before accepting. She 
needed to talk to Jung Hoon as she wasn't sure that he had 
fully accepted her rejection and that there weren't any 
hard feelings.

As they strolled along the side of the river running 
through the campus, she tried to broach the subject. "Jung 
Hoon, about last night..."

"Hey, it's all right Alexa. I understand. We are still 
friends, right?"

"Yes. We are."

"That's the important part. I guess it was a little idiotic 
of me to develop a crush on you." He looked at her, 
sheepish.

"Hey, I am flattered. At my age, I'll take all the flattery 
I can get," Lois defended his action, grinning 
mischievously.

"Your age! Got to be kidding. You look like a 16 year old. 
I swear, not one day older." Jung Hoon grinned back. For 
the rest of the walk, they exchanged jokes and flattery. 
Lois was surprised at her ability to befriend these 
students. She used to have difficulty developing 
friendships. 'Until Clark came along,' she thought. 'He 
changed my life for me. He helped me to better relate to 
others.'

Her thoughts flew to her fianc‚. She knew that she would 
have to tell him what she learned from her sojourn to the 
'afterlife' and tried to imagine what he would have to say 
about it. They've never really talked about such things 
before. 'Is it the right time to do so, now?' she wondered. 
'We are in the middle of an investigation. Is such a 
discussion really appropriate at this point of time? 
Perhaps, I'll wait until this is over for that discussion.' 
She finally resolved her dilemma.

Classes flew by the rest of the day. Lois spent much of her 
time struggling to understand the various concepts in 
Physics when she would rather spend time concentrating on 
her investigation. At least, it gave her the excuse to 
interact with 'Andy'. He patiently sat with her, explaining 
his lecture all over again. 'Well, he's a gifted teacher, 
I'll give him that,' Lois thought as she found herself 
beginning to see the beauty of Einstein's Theory of 
Relativity. 'He has the passion for the subject. So what 
made him get involved in the ring?'

There was no doubt in her mind that Professor Andrew 
Stanton was involved, especially after Clark's revelation 
regarding his wife. It was just too coincidental. And Lois 
had never believed in coincidences. As they wrapped up 
their session, Andy asked her, "What makes you start 
college at such a late age?"

'Ah, time to set the trap!' Lois smiled inwardly. 
Physically, she pulled a sad face. "I would have gone in 
earlier, but after high school I had to support my mom who 
had a stroke which left her paralyzed. She passed away 
recently."

"I'm sorry to hear it. It certainly explains why you have a 
difficult time trying to catch up. So how are you 
supporting yourself? You are no longer working?"

"No. I managed to get a scholarship. It's adequate." Lois 
made a face to indicate what she really thought about 
'adequate'.

"Don't worry. There's lots of opportunity for you to earn 
money here on campus. Once you have managed to catch up on 
your work, that is," Andy said, understandingly.

'I bet.' Of course, Lois didn't say what she really thought 
out loud. "Thanks for your time, Andy. I truly appreciate 
it. In fact, it never occurred to me what an interesting 
theory Einstein had put across."

"Yes, Physics need not be dry. It can be quite 
philosophical too. Wait till we get to Quantum Mechanics." 
Andy grinned mischievously.

Lois left his office, groaning.

________________

'Do all lecturers like to torture people? Hmm, perhaps that 
could be my next assignment. If I survive this one.' Lois 
complained to herself as she walked out of her philosophy 
class, the last class of the day. The more she thought 
about it, the more she felt that she should keep Professor 
John W. Lykos's name in the list. That guy was a slave 
driver, expecting his students to have read at least five 
percent of the dozens of books on the list he gave out the 
day before. Furthermore, he had a scathing tongue, one that 
had blistered many of the jokers in class. He had no 
patience for fools; he even said it himself. The only 
redeeming quality was that he had a wicked sense of humor 
and made the discussions very lively.

'God! I sound like a student, complaining about school! 
Here, I thought that was behind me.' Lois suddenly realized 
how typical a student she was becoming. 'I've got to do 
something else.' She didn't realize that there was someone 
watching her as she walked down the Brown Memorial Avenue, 
heading back to E.H.

"So what do you think of her?" The person watching Lois 
turned to face his companion.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"I mean, you spent quite some time with her today. You 
should be able to form some kind of an opinion," his 
companion replied.

"We've seen her records. She's a perfect candidate for us."

"Actually that's the reason I'm asking your opinion. She's 
too perfect a candidate. Furthermore, she's only in her 
first year. The others were in their second year before we 
even considered them."

The first person remained silent for a time before finally 
answering. "The unfortunate incident with Kaylie has made 
the rest of the girls more restive and frightened. While 
they are still doing their 'assignments', they aren't 
willing to help us recruit others. We need new blood and 
Alexa seems to come at the right time."

"But it may be a set up."

"What does Ben has to say?"

"He has looked over all her records and it's all in order. 
He spoke to her high school principle who had praised her 
diligence to her work. Her financial and social backgrounds 
also pass muster. The doctor who treated her mother said 
that she was a devoted daughter; she spent her evenings at 
the hospice tending to her mother."

"So what's the problem? Why do you think it's a set up?"

"Just my gut feeling."

"Well, we'll just have to observe her further. After all, 
the term has just begun."

His companion nodded and the conversation turned to other 
topics.

Meanwhile, back at Elizabeth Hall, Lois had no inkling of 
the discussion taking place not even a mile away. She 
dumped her stuff on the desk and headed straight for the 
shower. After a refreshing shower, she felt ready to tackle 
her workload. Well, sometimes the body had other ideas, and 
she fell asleep at her desk.

**********

Tossing and turning, she shivered in the night. In her 
sleep, she groped around, trying to find her covers. 'Where 
are they?' Her unconscious mind noted that her covers were 
missing. Unable to take too much of the cold, she started 
to wake.

"Ouch." She banged her head on the tin cover of the 
makeshift 'house' she had made earlier in the night. Of 
course, that was why she was cold. No proper bed covers and 
definitely no proper house. She was on her investigation, 
which Clark had not even an inkling of. He had been in 
Switzerland, dealing with the terrible landslide, and all 
those trapped skiers and holidaymakers when her source gave 
her this hot lead on illegal organ harvesting.

Lois shivered once again. What had made her so impulsively 
take a few days leave to investigate this without notifying 
anyone? Was there some sort of suicidal tendency in her? 
Well, if not suicidal, at the very least, a masochistic 
one. Being in this cold, without proper clothing and 
shelter was definitely not her idea of comfort. However, 
she knew that Perry would not have approved her 
investigation, since he had been rather worried about her. 
With her mom in a coma for a week, just a week ago, he 
didn't think she had recovered from her exhausting 
vigilance by the bedside nor from the maximum effort she 
put in to bringing the men who had harmed her mother to 
justice. Especially when Clark wasn't around, as he was 
supposedly covering the news of Superman's activity in 
Switzerland.

No, there was no other way for her to investigate the case 
without resorting to taking leave. Perry had been glad to 
grant it. He thought that she needed the time for some 
relaxation. Shivering violently as a strong gust of wind 
blew across the alley, her thoughts were wrenched back into 
the present. She needed to find some place warmer. Perhaps, 
the homeless shelter that some of the others were talking 
about would be a good place to go. Yes, she'd better leave 
now before it closed. She shivered.

**********

Lois shivered in her sleep. The gust of wind outside 
startled her into waking. She instinctively turned towards 
the window. There, hovering outside, was Clark. He grinned, 
looking rather boyish in his dark clothes.

"Clark! Come on in." She felt a little guilty for the 
almost nightmare that she just had. 'Don't be ridiculous, 
Lois,' she scolded herself. 'You'll tell him later.'

"Hi honey. Fell asleep before completing your work, eh?" 
Clark's grin turned mischievous. "Tut, tut. Who'd thought 
that the great Lois Lane would not finish her work before 
she sleeps?"

"Well, you try being a student for a change. You, Faculty 
types, just know how to give work without considering the 
amount of work we students have in total." Lois gave him a 
mock glare.

"If you cannot take it, perhaps you should drop a few," 
Clark shot back.

"Of course I can take it. You just wait. I'll top my 
classes, yet," she replied, finding this conversation 
bordering upon silliness. Unable to contain her delight, 
she laughed out loud. Clark continued grinning at her.

"Lois, mom and dad send their hugs and kisses. Now why 
don't I give them to you," he teased. She grinned and went 
into his open arms. 

After a few moments of comfort in each other's embrace, 
they went to work. She told him about the opening that she 
had given Dr. Stanton. "The bait has been set. Let's see 
whether the fishes are going to bite," she told him.

"At least, you've made some progress. The listening devices 
didn't pick up anything useful other than the fact that 
Professor Stanton and his wife are estranged. They sleep in 
separate bedrooms and do not actually talk to each other, 
other than 'can you please pass the butter' or comments 
like that." Clark sighed. "As for the research on the other 
lecturers that the girls had in common, Jimmy and I managed 
to get detailed records on three of them."

"Hmm, records you say?" A light dawned on Lois.

Clark knew that look. "Lois?"

"Clark, how did these people get to know the records of the 
girls? I'm sure they would go through the records with a 
fine comb before they actually approach the girls. These 
people are not your street corner pimps; they had shown 
themselves to be very selective when it comes to choosing 
their victims. So they must have a way to get to the 
records."

"You may be right. All right, you are definitely right," he 
amended when she raised her eyebrows at him. "From what 
I've been briefed, none of the Faculty members have direct 
access to those records other than the Deans of the 
faculties. Any one else have to request permission from the 
registrar's office to view the records."

"Do they have to justify their requests?"

"Yes."

"So that means..."

"They would look suspicious if too many such requests were 
made. Which implies..."

"That there is a mole in the registrar's office helping 
them."

"Bright! Lois, you are absolutely brilliant," Clark 
laughed.

She sketched a bow. "Thank you, kind sir. Brilliant's my 
middle name."

"I'll get Jimmy to trace who's been accessing the records 
of the girls. We may have a break, yet."

Now that that was over, she felt nervous about confessing 
to him regarding her recent nightmare. "Clark," she 
started. Just then, Clark had the 'look'. She sighed, 
knowing that he'd have to leave. She couldn't make up her 
mind whether she resented the intrusion or felt relieved 
that she didn't have to confess so soon.

"Lois, I've..." Clark looked at her guiltily.

"Go." She gave him a peck on the cheek and waved him away. 
He hesitated before finally leaving. 

After he left, Lois decided she had better return to her 
schoolwork. Inwardly, she groaned. She knew she would not 
be able to concentrate on her work. Especially with the 
adrenaline coursing through her from the 'almost' 
breakthrough they had. She needed to do something. 'Yes, a 
jog would be good. And if I just happen to pass by the 
Computational Science Department, well...' A devious smile 
crept onto her face as her mind raced through the plans for 
breaking into Ms. Sims's office. Changing into a dark 
sweatshirt and pants, she left her room. 

The route she took was quite a scenic route if it had been 
daytime. Late at night, it was dim and almost deserted. The 
trees on either side of the pathway seemed to loom in the 
darkness, casting shadows onto the path. A mist seemed to 
seep from behind the trees, making the pathway barely 
visible. As Lois jogged on, the echo of her footsteps 
jarred the creepy silence of the night. There was something 
about the route that made her feel rather claustrophobic 
and reminded her of the dark alley where she had found 
herself in the last investigation. 

Her heartbeat increased and she felt eyes watching her. Was 
it her imagination or did she actually hear footsteps 
following her? 'Lois, you stupid girl! What made you decide 
to do such a harebrained thing like breaking into Ms. Sim's 
office? And taking this route is definitely a bad idea,' 
she silently lectured herself. She strained her head behind 
to try and detect anyone following her, but saw none.

'OK, Lois. It's just your imagination. Now, pick up speed 
and the faster we'll get to the Computational Science 
Building.' With that goal in mind, she increased her speed. 
However turning a corner, a dark shadow reached out to grab 
her from the cover of the trees. Momentarily, Lois froze, 
but soon began to struggle. The person was strong and it 
wasn't easy for her to twist her body enough to land him an 
effective kick in the groin. She tried to shout, but the 
guy covered her mouth with his hand and drew her close to 
his body. His other free arm pinned her arms to her side in 
an overwhelming grip. She struggled to free her arms while 
kicking him wherever she could. But it was futile. He 
dragged her off the pathway and into the woods beyond.

Seeing that there was no other way to free herself, she 
stopped struggling for the moment. Lois thought that if she 
could wait until the assailant was less vigilant, she had a 
chance to escape. That plan flew right out of her head when 
her 'kidnapper' whispered into her ears, "Ms. Lane, please 
be quite. Just wait a while. I'll explain everything very 
soon. If you agree, please nod."

Who would know her real identity? Making up her mind, she 
nodded. He slowly released his hand from her mouth though 
his other arm still gripped her tightly. For a while, all 
was silent. Then, they heard footsteps and voices.

"Where did she go?" the first voice asked in a whisper.

"I don't know. I saw her heading this way. She couldn't 
have gotten far." Another voice replied.

"Yeah, well she didn't reach my vantage point at all. And 
this path only leads there."

"Where could she have gone then? She left my sight barely 
five minutes ago."

"Perhaps she took a short cut through the woods. Anyway, 
this assignment is pointless. I don't understand why Hawk 
feels that we need to keep an eye on a potential. We've 
never done so before."

"Well, Hawk's the brain of the operation, we are just the 
minions. Unless you want to get into trouble?"

"Of course not. We'll have to tell the boss that we lost 
her, you know."

"I'm not looking forward to that."

Lois and her assailant, or was it her rescuer, she hadn't 
made up her mind yet, kept very still as the voices moved 
on and left the vicinity. After a few minutes, the person 
released his hold on her and she quickly turned to face 
him. She gasped. The face was familiar.

"Prof. Lykos, you?"

"Actually, it's Detective Lykos from Vice, Ms. Lane," he 
said while giving her a slightly mocking smile.

"Vice? What would a detective from Vice be doing here in 
Met. U. undercover?" she asked challengingly.

"I would expect for the same reason you are here 
undercover." He smirked. 

________________

Lois was speechless. How did the police get wind of the 
case? From what Michael told her, she was under the 
impression that the police had no knowledge of the 
syndicate. Was this Lykos fellow trying to pull one on her? 
Perhaps he was another reporter trying to horn in on her 
investigation. If so, she wasn't about to give him any 
advantage, that was for sure. Her mind came up with an even 
worse scenario. What if he was part of the syndicate? That 
would mean that her cover was blown and her life might be 
in danger.

'I better proceed cautiously,' Lois thought and wondered 
the approach she should take. Thinking fast, she smiled at 
him. "So, how did you know who I was?"

"I was with the team trying to arrest Lex Luthor. I believe 
I saw you there."

Lois winced at the mention of the infamous wedding scene. 
"Oh, were you? I didn't know that Vice was involved."

He gave a sheepish grin and said, "Your caution is 
applaudable. Check with Bill Henderson regarding my 
identity, if you care to."

"You can bet on it. Now, can I go?"

"Nope!" His grin got wider and turned mischievous. "Not 
until we make a deal."

"A deal? What deal? I don't make deals," Lois's voice 
became quite indignant as she tried to move away from John 
Lykos.

"I know your reputation, but I think we can work together 
on this."

"Work together on what?" She tried for an innocent look. 

That didn't work on him, however. "The investigation; they 
obviously have their eyes on you."

She sighed since obviously she wasn't going to be able to 
shake the detective. "Look, I'm not going to say anything 
until I confirm your identity. I'm going now... unless, of 
course, you're going to try to stop me."

Lykos watched her stalk away. He had to shake his head. 
'Now, that's Lois Lane,' he thought as he remembered the 
almost pitiful lady he had previously encountered during 
her aborted wedding to Luthor.

Lois, on the other hand, was cursing to herself for even 
leaving her room. 'But at least, I've gained a better 
picture of the cast involved in this "play". It will be 
useful later, I'm sure. Besides, now I know that I've 
caught the attention of the syndicate.' 

Reaching Elizabeth Hall, she made her way to her room. She 
retrieved her cell-phone and called Bill Henderson. 
"Inspector Henderson, please." 

While waiting, she searched around the room trying to find 
her pen and paper. "Bill? It's Lois Lane. Fine, thanks. 
Sorry to disturb you at home. Well, not that sorry," she 
spoke into the phone, grinning slightly at the remark that 
Inspector Henderson made in reply. "I ran into a detective 
from Vice. Said that he knew you. A Detective John 
Lykos...Greek, I think."

"Yes. That's him all right. Is he clean?" she asked, while 
scribbling on the paper some ideas she wanted to go over 
with Clark once he returned. "Hmm, sounds like he's another 
boy scout. Yeah, Clark's away on vacation. I'll tell him 
when I hear from him. Thanks, Bill." 

Clicking off the phone, she reviewed again what Bill 
Henderson said about Detective Lykos. He had a slew of 
commendations for his work in Vice and before that in 
Homicide. But for all that, he was quite the lone wolf, 
could never work with a partner. She wondered why he was 
willing to work with Clark and her.

"Lois?" Clark called out, as he hovered outside the window.

"Oh, Clark, wait," Lois said, moving to open the window. 
"What happened?"

"There was a plane caught in the storm, north of here. It 
almost crashed into the mountains."

"Well, will it make the papers tomorrow?"

"Yes, Henry was at the airport when I brought in the plane. 
Gave him the scoop."

Lois nodded. Henry was a new reporter whom Perry had hired 
to cover the city beat. A young, earnest man who was eager 
to learn all he could. Clark took to him at once. But she 
had gone off on a tangent. They had more important things 
to discuss. She reluctantly tried to tell him of her 
foolish trip.

"Clark, I've to confess something." 

"I'm not going to like this, am I?" Clark teased her.

"Well, depends on how you look at it." She grinned weakly.

"All right, honey. Lay it on me." Clark made himself 
comfortable on the bed.

He was silent for a while after hearing what she had to 
say. 

"Well, you don't have to tell me that it was a foolish 
thing to do." Lois finished her description.

Clark sighed, knowing that Lois would never really change. 
However, it was good that she had recovered her confidence 
enough to do such things. "About the detective, I think we 
should take him up on his offer..."

"Are you serious? Clark, he'll put a gag on our story. Then 
where will we be?" she disagreed.

"Lois, look at it this way. We aren't going to write this 
story until we have all the facts. And we are not going to 
have all the facts on our own as fast as if we work with 
this detective. Besides, Inspector Henderson trusts him."

"That's the only point on his side," Lois said, almost 
resentfully.

Clark was on the alert at once. "What's bothering you about 
him?"

She sighed, knowing that her bias was not logical. "He's my 
philosophy professor. Let's just say that he didn't impress 
me all that much."

"I see." Clark grinned at the understatement. Lois was too 
passionate to not like someone mildly. No, the poor 
detective probably earned her everlasting dislike based on 
the cover he had used when he first met her. "Still there 
is merit in working with him, honey. After all, you were 
the one who wondered how the police got wind of this. Now 
we'll be able to gain access to the info that he has."

"When you're right, you're right," Lois conceded after 
being silent for a moment. "I guess, since officially you 
aren't suppose to be around, I'll have to beard the lion in 
its den, so to speak."

"Come on, Lois. Cheer up. It's not that bad." Clark tried 
to contain his impulse to laugh at the disgusted look on 
Lois's face.

"Yes, it is. If the way he conducts classes are anything to 
go by, that damn man can be very unreasonable."

Clark couldn't contain it any longer and burst out 
laughing. Lois glared at him and his mirth increased as a 
result. "Sor...Sorry. I didn't..." he tried to apologize 
and suppressed his laughter at the same time. "I mean I 
wasn't laughing at you. Just that by the way you are so 
reluctant, you made him out to be this monster."

"Clark! Be serious for once, will you?" Lois was rather 
exasperated at the way Clark wasn't sympathizing with her.

"I'm trying." He grinned very widely.

"Well, try harder!"

"Lois, you are being silly. The way the guy is acting is 
just a cover. I'm sure he'd turn out to be a very decent 
person if you approach him nicely."

She muttered something under her breath. He grinned even 
wider, having heard what she had said. She probably didn't 
even realize that Clark could hear her. It wasn't too 
flattering for Detective Lykos but that was the way Lois 
was. From her response though, he knew she had conceded the 
point.

"OK, OK. I'll go tomorrow. Now about this Hawk character, 
it sounds like he's the one who hired the goons. Wonder if 
he's the mastermind?"

Clark thought about it. "We might be jumping to 
conclusions. He may be just the person who can make those 
guys tow the line. He's not necessarily the head of the 
ring. I'll get Jimmy to dig into the idea you had earlier 
and see what he can find. You didn't get a good look at the 
guys, did you?"

"No," Lois replied in a disappointed tone. "Wish I had your 
eyesight. It was too dark and I was blocked by the bushes."

"Well, Det. Lykos might have some information about them 
since he seems to know that they were following you."

She glared at him. "Sure, rub it in."

His reply was simply a smug grin. It was immediately 
replaced by a warm smile as he opened his arms to her. 
Without further invitation, she snuggled into his arms and 
they laid down on the bed together.

"Clark..."

"Yes, Lois?"

"I had another nightmare...well not exactly a nightmare..." 
Lois started to say, playing with his hair.

"When?" Clark would have gotten up but Lois put her hands 
on his chest to keep him down and calm.

"It's all right, Clark. As I said, it wasn't a nightmare, 
technically."

He settled down again, and took a deep breath. If there 
were anyone who could wound Superman without using 
Kryptonite, it would be Lois. How many times, since he had 
met Lois, had he experience the pain and anxiety of 
watching Lois dangle over the jaws of death?

"If not a nightmare, what was it?" he asked.

"Well, I fell asleep at the desk earlier, remember?" When 
he nodded, she continued, "I dreamt about the night I 
stumbled into the headquarters of the organ harvesting 
ring. Not the actual event but just before it...when I 
decided to take shelter from the cold. I think I realize 
something from the dream." She ended her explanation in a 
wondrous tone.

He looked at her, surprised. "What is it?"

"I need to confide and trust more in people ...if not 
everybody, at least the people closest to me. If I had told 
Perry about the investigation, I don't think it would have 
turned out the way it did. Of course, there was a very 
great probability he would have assigned someone else to 
cover it," she said with a sheepish grin.

"I'm glad that you realize this." Clark gave her hug. "You 
can bet that I'll keep reminding you to open up more," he 
said, with a sly grin.

"I'll welcome it," she replied, giving him a gentle kiss. 
"I'm pretty tired, Clark. We'd better say goodnight."

"Goodnight, my little tornado." He returned the kiss and 
they both drifted off unaware of what was brewing across 
campus.

_______________

"WHAT!! Idiots! Must I do everything myself?" The man 
called Hawk paced up and down the plush office as the two 
men who had followed Lois stood, cringing at his fiery 
anger.

"Tell me again how you could have lost her." The heated 
tone brooked no nonsense. The two men glanced at each 
other. Neither really wanted to say anything more, for fear 
of incurring even more of Hawk's wrath.

"Well?" Hawk asked impatiently.

"We don't know, Boss. There was only one way she could have 
given us the slip, and that was for her to go through the 
woods. But it didn't make sense for her to do that when 
even on the path, the visibility was poor. She'd just get 
lost going through the woods," the braver between the two 
answered.

"That's right, Boss. Perhaps, she's a little touched in the 
head. Who'd actually go jogging so late at night and then 
choose that path, anyway? There were better paths she could 
have chosen for jogging," the second man, drawing courage 
from his friend, added.

Hawk frowned. He knew he'd get no better answer from these 
two. They were just hired help. Good for certain things but 
brains were not among the list. He sighed. Good help was 
hard to come by these days. "Get out of here," he growled.

The two needed no other invitation. They left quickly, as 
if their lives depend on it. As soon as they had left, the 
side door to the office opened. A shadowy figure stood in 
the open door. Hawk turned and asked, "You heard?"

"Yes. It sounds suspicious. They asked the right question, 
you know. Why was she jogging on that path?"

"Hmm...so my gut feelings might have some basis."

"Perhaps. If we think carefully, the path leads to only one 
place...the Computational Science Department. I've a 
feeling that was where she was heading before she 
disappeared from sight."

"Why was she heading there? And how did she disappear? Was 
she aware of our surveillance on her?" Hawk asked.

"Good questions. I think we'll soon know the answers." That 
statement was spoken very ominously. 

Hawk looked at his companion. He wondered whether he was 
out of his depth trying to work with such a person. "How 
are we going to find out?" he asked.

"Wait and see, Hawk. Wait and see." With that, the door 
closed and the Hawk was left alone. He sat down tiredly in 
his comfortable chair. He wished he could turn back time 
and never have become involved with this operation. As he 
looked around his office, he knew that he couldn't be where 
he was without the influence the head of the ring had. Once 
again the question arose; did his gains outweigh his losses 
in this venture? 

He had no answer. However, there was no way he could 
withdraw from the operation. He was in too deep. He would 
never survive if he were to betray them. 'In for a penny, 
in for a pound,' he thought.

With that final thought firmly in mind, he shook off his 
doubts and stood up to clear his office. He took another 
long look at it before switching off the lights and walked 
to his car, unaware of the person watching him from a 
distance.

As he drove away, the person came out of the shadows. Light 
from the street lamp fell on his face, revealing him to be 
Detective Lykos.

________________

Lois stirred. Something woke her up. She tried to move but 
something was holding her tight. For a moment she started 
to panic but as sleep fled, she realized that the something 
was Clark. Her panic subsided and she tried to wake him up. 

"Clark," she whispered into his ears. "Clark, wake up. I 
need to get up."

"Hmmm," he mumbled, releasing his hold on her, and turned 
over in the small bed. She got up and looked around, 
wondering what woke her. A quiet tap on her door took her 
by surprised. She quickly moved towards the door, throwing 
a quick glance at the sleeping figure of her fianc‚. 
Opening her door just a tiny bit, she was shocked when it 
was shoved opened further and a figure slipped in.

"Ms. Lane, I'm sorry to budge in like this but..." 
Detective Lykos stopped his apology when he noticed the 
male figure starting to rise from the bed. He turned back 
towards Lois and blushed in embarrassment.

Clark, having been alerted by the tap, got up as quickly as 
he could. He, too, was a little embarrassed at being caught 
in bed with Lois. Even if they were engaged, his sense of 
propriety didn't extend to letting others know about their 
sleeping arrangement.

Lois, on the other hand, wasn't embarrassed at all. She was 
too busy being outraged by the actions of the detective. 
'Who does he think he is to barge into my room without even 
an apology?' she thought, forgetting that the detective had 
apologized.

"Who do you think you are?" she demanded.

The two men turned to her in some confusion, before her 
dark countenance registered in their minds. Clark took 
immediate action as he reached for her.

"Detective Lykos, I presume? Please sit down," he said, 
motioning to the single chair in the room. Lois was about 
to object, but he stopped her with an embrace and directed 
her to the bed. She glared at him but allowed him to 
continue.

Lykos noted their exchange with interest. "Thank you, Mr. 
Kent...you are Mr. Kent?"

"Yes, I am." Clark pulled Lois down to sit on the bed with 
him. "What brings you here, Detective?"

"Call me John. Actually, I don't know what I was thinking." 
Lykos said, coloring a little.

Lois muttered under her breath that obviously he wasn't 
thinking. Lykos didn't hear it, of course, but Clark did. 
Sparing her a quelling glance, he said, "It's all right, 
John. You weren't disturbing us and you can call me Clark. 
I'm sure that my partner wouldn't mind you calling her 
Lois." Clark raised an inquisitive eyebrow at Lois.

Once again, Lois glared at him before turning to Lykos and 
nodded an acknowledgment. While she still didn't 
particularly like for the detective, she was smart enough 
to know that he wouldn't be in her room in the early hours 
of the morning without a very good reason. It was very 
likely connected to the case.

"O.K., Clark, I think I'd better come straight to the 
point. Lois, you are in a dangerous position at the moment. 
Yet, you have a key role to play if we want to break this 
case."

"And what case might that be?" she countered.

"Lois!" Clark objected.

"Come on Clark. How do you know that he's working on the 
same case as us?"

"I can assure you, Lois, that I am. I've been trying to 
bust this high-class prostitution ring for months."

"Are you working alone?" Clark asked, curious since he knew 
that a case this big would definitely rate more than one 
cop to it.

"Unfortunately yes. I'm working in an unofficial capacity," 
Lykos replied, sighing. "You see, when I stumbled on this 
case, I tried to bring it to my superiors' attention. But 
since I didn't have a scrap of evidence or anything else to 
support my suspicions, they refused to look into it. So I 
decided to conduct my own investigation."

"How did you manage to get a teaching position? You were 
suppose to be from a university in Greece," Lois asked, her 
curiosity was now aroused.

Lykos grinned, expecting the question. "Well, I am Greek. 
As for the cover, someone in the FBI owed me and so helped 
create it for me. So does that establish we are working on 
the same thing?"

"Yes," Clark answered. 

"Now can you tell us why you're here?" Lois asked 
impatiently.

"That's simple. I've information which I thought you might 
be interested in."

Lois frowned, suspicious of the detective's motives. "Why 
are you helping us?" 

"Because it'll be wiser for all of us to pool our resources 
together and shut this operation down faster. As for the 
information, I want to know if you're interested in working 
with me first."

The two partners looked at each other and came to a 
decision. "Of course we are," Lois assured. "Now what can 
you tell us?"

Lykos smiled at Lois's eagerness. "As I mentioned I 
stumbled on this case. An informant remarked in passing 
that he heard a rumor of a new operation that caters to 
high levels. One of the hotels they were using happened to 
be the Excelsius."

Clark frowned. "Excelsius? The new hotel that is touted to 
rival the Lexor?" 

"Yes. I was surprised as well. But you must remember that 
these people cater to powerful clients. Anyway, I did some 
stake outs on the place."

"And?" Lois asked impatiently.

"A distant cousin of mine happened to be one of the girls 
involved. I spotted her with a powerful Congressman coming 
into the hotel. At the time I didn't suspect anything at 
all. The Congressman was very 'surprised' to be pulled over 
by a cop from Vice, I can tell you that."

Lois snorted, knowing exactly what he meant by 'surprised'.

Lykos continued, "Well, he didn't want to get involved. Of 
course, he denied having hired a call girl. Instead he 
insisted that my cousin was from an escort service he had 
hired. They were going to the Excelsius for an engagement 
party. It checked out and my cousin supported it."

Clark interrupted him, "Actually their claim might be true. 
We've found out that these people lure out these girls by 
offering them a job with an escort service."

"Yes, you're right. I've found out about it later. Back to 
my cousin. I quizzed her and found out that she had just 
started with the service. She was recommended by her 
professor in the Chemistry Department, one Professor Henry 
Bakers."

Lois and Clark exchanged another look that Lykos caught. 
"What?" he asked.

"I'm due to come in as a Faculty member. History Department 
though," Clark answered.

"Good, another pair of eyes will be welcomed. But be 
careful, they will be watching you."

Clark nodded in acknowledgement of the advice.

Lois, on the other hand, was impatient to get the 
discussion back on track. "What happened to your cousin? 
How does she fit into the profile of the girls they 
target?" Lois asked.

"She's actually an orphan, but as Greeks, we are big on 
family. I got her to get help from our uncle. But that 
incident spurred me to investigate this case. I checked out 
the escort service only to find that their tracks are well 
covered."

"Which service was it?"

"It was not an actual service by itself. It's actually part 
of a fancy tour agency called..." He paused to think.

"The Thrill-Seekers?" Clark supplied.

"Yes, how did ..."

"We did our homework," Lois said smugly. Clark snickered 
and gave her an amused look.

Returning the look, she explained, "Professor Andrew 
Stanton's wife is a co-owner of the agency. He's actually 
one of the professors who taught one of the girls. It was 
the father of the girl who alerted us. She tried to get out 
of the operation but they caught up with her and left her 
for dead. She's in a coma at the moment in the hospital. 
The police have her as a rape victim."

"I see."

"How did you know about the guys following me? And I don't 
think you'd come here in the middle of the night just to 
gain our cooperation," Lois asked suspiciously.

Lykos grinned; he was expecting that from her. "No, Ms. 
Lane. I did not. I came here because I believe I've made a 
breakthrough tonight."

"But..."

"But why did I come here? I need your help and you need 
mine. Tonight, I made a breakthrough in the case. The Hawk 
your pursuers were talking about, well he happens to be the 
President of the university himself."

"How did you get this information?" Clark asked.

"I followed the men right to the doorstep of the 
President's office," Lykos replied, grinning. "This is very 
big if the President of Met. U. is involved."

"Definitely!" Lois exclaimed and jumped up to pace around 
the tiny room. Of course, given there were two other people 
in the room, the space was even more constrained. Both men 
watched her pacing, each having almost identical thoughts 
of how beautiful Lois was. Lykos flushed as the thought 
passed through his mind. He had heard about the engagement 
between the two reporters, and he hadn't forgotten the 
scene that he had intruded. It was not an appropriate 
thought but he rationalized that it was not a fault to 
admire from afar.

Meanwhile, Lois had no clue of the thoughts of those around 
her. Her mind was focused on this latest development. "This 
means that almost anyone of the faculty could be a 
suspect."

"I'm sure not all of them are involved. We'll work with the 
leads we have at the moment, Lois," Clark reminded her. 
"Your suggestion of looking into the people who have access 
to the records is a great idea. And now that we know for 
sure that the President of the university is involved, we 
can put him under surveillance."

Lykos asked curiously, "How are you going to do that? 
There's only three of us and we can't be around 
constantly."

"True, but we have someone at the Planet who is very good 
at this kind of surveillance work. We've got the Stantons' 
house under surveillance and we could do the same to the 
President's office," Clark explained.

"Sounds like a plan," Lykos agreed, getting up. "I'll see 
you tomorrow then. Goodnight."

Clark and Lois exchanged a glance which, once again, Lykos 
intercepted and wondered about. It was as if they had this 
unspoken communication between them. A second later, Lois 
answered, "Clark's suppose to be on vacation at the moment 
and it's better that no one knows that he's back early. 
This will free him to do some of the leg work for us."

Lykos nodded, though he knew there was more to it than 
that. He wasn't about to ask too many questions. "Well then 
I'll see you tomorrow, Ms. Thompkins," he said with a 
mischievous grin.

After Lykos had left, Clark said, "See, he wasn't so bad."

Lois snorted and went back to bed. "Well, are you going to 
stand there all night? I'm definitely taking what little 
time of the night left there is to sleep."

Clark sighed, knowing that Lois was not a happy camper. He 
didn't quite understand why, but Lois was Lois. He doubted 
he'd be able to understand her fully even after spending 
their whole life together. He heeded the advice his father 
gave him; it's better for the man in the long run just to 
agree with the womenfolk. "Yes, ma'am." He grinned and 
snuggled in beside her.

_______________

Like any other student, Lois was glad that it was Friday 
and the week was almost over. She found her first week as a 
student quite exhausting, especially since she had another 
assignment on top of her classes. Today was the worst since 
she had a total of 3 hours of sleep last night thanks to 
Prof. Lykos.

'And just to be cruel, he decided to pick on me this 
morning,' she thought, as once again the good professor 
quizzed her on one of the books which she was supposed to 
have read yesterday. 'Who had the time to read with 
everything that was going on?'

"No, sir. I've not read it."

In a solemn voice, Lykos remarked to the class, "I have a 
problem with procrastination. I've been meaning to do 
something about that but I keep putting it off."

At that remark, a lot of the students colored. Lois gritted 
her teeth and said defensively, "I was not procrastinating. 
You only gave us the list two days ago. I've not started 
that book yet."

"Did I accuse you of anything, Ms. Thompkins?" Lykos raised 
his eyebrow.

Feeling very frustrated, Lois replied with a curt 'No, 
sir'.

"Good." Before he turned back to the class, Lois caught the 
slight wink he sent her way. "Now Class, today we'll be 
discussing the very famous words: 'I think therefore I 
am'..."

Lois came out of the classroom, feeling as if she had just 
emerged from hell. "Alexa! Wait up."

She turned, to see who had called her. Weaving around the 
mess of people in the corridor was Andrew Stanton. She 
slowed down to let him catch up, wondering what Andy 
wanted. Could they be contacting her so soon? Her earlier 
lethargy due to sleep deprivation evaporated and was 
replaced by anticipation. 

As Andy drew near, she smiled at him and greeted him. "Hi 
Andy. Why are you all the way over here, on this side of 
campus?" 

Andy tried to answer her as he gasped for breath, 
"I...was...having lunch at the Springs Kitchen." He waved 
in the general direction of the cafeteria. "Then I saw you. 
Did you just finish class?"

"Nope. Just emerged from Hell," Lois replied, grinning.

"Ahhhh...I understand," Andy grinned back. "I just hope 
that none of my students ever call my classes hell."

"I'm not telling," Lois said with a mischievous smile.

Andy laughed out loud, attracting the attention of the 
people around them. Fortunately, it was short-lived. "So 
how's the first week of school been for you?" he asked.

"Exhausting! I've never worked as hard in my life."

"Now, surely that's an exaggeration."

"Ok, maybe a little," she said sheepishly. "But not by 
much."

"Look, if you need help with Physics, I can hook you up 
with a student of mine. She's in her fourth year and is 
willing to help tutor you free of charge."

Lois was taken aback. This was not what she expected him to 
have said. She would have thought that he'd have offered 
her the job. Had they come to the wrong conclusion about 
him? But given that his wife was a partner in the agency 
they were investigating, he had to be involved. 

Quickly recovering, she said, "I don't know what to say, 
Andy. It's very kind of you and her, but I don't want to 
impose."

"No imposition at all. Camille has helped quite a few 
others, and when I approached her yesterday, she was keen 
on helping you. She admires how you have the courage to 
come back to school at your age. Look, why don't you come 
to my office this evening and I'll introduce the two of 
you. Then whatever you decide is up to you. OK?"

The name struck a cord in her since Camille was one of the 
names on the list. Perhaps this was just the approach they 
are taking to contact her. "If that's the case, sure. What 
time should I come by?" 

"How about 6 pm?"

"No problem, see you then," Lois answered.

Looking satisfied, Andy nodded and left. Lois watched him 
go, her mind still processing this new development. 'Girl, 
I think you've just hit the jackpot,' her inner voice 
informed her.

'Don't be too sure. This Camille may not be the same one,' 
another inner voice cautioned.

'You're too cautious,' the first voice countered. 'Let's 
review the facts. One, this Camille majors in Physics. Two, 
she's in her fourth year. Third, she's a student of 
Stanton. All three fit the profile for the Camille in our 
list.'

'We don't know whether she really majors in Physics,' the 
second voice argued.

'Stop! We'll just see this evening, OK?' Lois stopped the 
argument, wondering when she started arguing with herself. 
She wondered if she was developing split personalities. 'I 
guess I only have to start worrying when I start losing the 
arguments.'

She was so engrossed with her thoughts that the light tap 
on her shoulder made her jump and yelp. "What the..." she 
said, swiftly turning and taking a fighting stance, only to 
find Lykos grinning mischievously at her.

"Did I scare you?" he asked, unrepentant.

Lois would rather die than admit that. "Don't do that 
again, if you know what's good for you. I could have hurt 
you," she scolded him as she relaxed her stance. "What's 
with you, anyway? Last night, you grabbed me and just now, 
you sneak up on me."

"Sorry," Lykos said, without a trace of real remorse.

"What do you want?"

"I saw you talking to Stanton."

"So, is there a law against it?"

"Lois..."

She hissed at that little slip and looked around. "Alexa. 
Unless you want to blow my cover," she corrected him in a 
low voice.

He gave a sheepish grin and apologized, "Sorry, Alexa. But 
you know that our deal was that we'd work together and 
holding information from me isn't working together."

Lois considered this with some deliberation. Finally, she 
answered, "This is not a good place to talk. I'll e-mail 
you the information."

"Fair enough. But don't send it using the school's email. I 
believe it's being monitored. E-mail me at this address," 
he said, passing her a small piece of paper. "Oh yes, how 
can I contact Clark?"

"Why do you need to do that?" Lois asked.

"Because he's more cooperative than you." Lykos said, more 
of a question than an answer.

Lois would have said something, but before she could, he 
had disappeared. She was left with the piece of paper and a 
feeling that she'd have met a formidable opponent. She 
hadn't known anybody else who could get a rise out of her 
like Lykos. 'Well except maybe Clark when we first met,' 
she thought warmly. She wondered at the irony of the 
situation; she liked Stanton a lot, even though he was a 
suspect, and she disliked Lykos who was an ally.

Shaking her head ruefully, she walked in the direction of 
the computer lab for her next class. In fact, she was 
already late for the class. However, when she arrived, Ms. 
Sims only mumbled something about being more punctual next 
time and waved her on. Jung Hoon looked at her curiously, 
silently asking for the reason of her lateness. She mouthed 
'later' to him, as she took her place.

The class was asked to do a small sorting routine. Given a 
list of numbers, they were to write a program to sort the 
numbers in ascending order. Lois, having absolutely no 
knowledge of programming, found herself totally at a loss 
of where to start.

"Is there a problem, Alexa?" Ms. Sims came over and peered 
over her shoulder to look at the blank computer screen.

"Er...Ms. Sims, actually, I'm having trouble with this 
class. I've no experience in computer programming," Lois 
answered sheepishly.

"Good."

"Huh?" That was the only intelligent sound Lois could make.

"Good," Ms. Sims reiterated. "This means that you won't 
have to unlearn all the bad habits you would have picked up 
otherwise. You can start fresh. Now, why don't we work this 
out?" She dragged a chair and sat beside Lois, patiently 
going through the algorithm for sorting step by step.

Lois was surprised and quite touched by Endora Sims's 
dedication to her students. She might seem quiet and 
nervous, but she was very willing to help. She earned 
Lois's admiration for that. However, Lois still wondered if 
Sims was involved in the ring. Once again, she was stumped 
by the fact that the suspects were all people whom she 
admired and liked; dedicated teachers. Or was it just a 
fa‡ade to impress her and gain her trust?

The cynical side of her believed that was the case while 
the other, more reasonable side of her argued that people 
are not all evil or all good. 'OK, that maybe true,' the 
cynical side said. 'Still, it is not possible to be a 
nurturer and a destroyer of a life at the same time. 
Besides, you can't really be that na‹ve after what happened 
to us in the last investigation.'

The other side couldn't answer that rebuttal as Lois was 
reminded of the incident at the homeless shelter.

**********

The door to the shelter was closed and the lights were 
dimmed inside, but having walked all the way here, Lois 
wasn't about to turn around and look for some place else in 
this cold night. She banged on the door once again, hoping 
that someone inside would be kind enough to come and open 
it.

After knocking for the third time, she could hear footsteps 
approaching the door. The door opened and a pleasant 
looking woman peered into the darkness. On spotting Lois, 
she immediately smiled and said, "Hi there. Come on in. 
It's just too cold to be out here."

Lois warmed up to the soothing voice and charming smile. 
The offer to get out of the cold was definitely welcomed. 
"Thanks," she replied, hugging herself and rubbing her arms 
to keep warm. "Do you have a place for me, just for 
tonight?"

"Yes, of course we do. My name is Linda, by the way." Linda 
didn't ask for Lois's name, as most of the homeless would 
rather not tell people their names.

"Thanks, Linda." Lois entered the shelter as Linda moved 
away from the door. The warmth emanating from the shelter 
was a welcoming change from the howling winds outside. 
Linda guided her to the mess hall where they were serving 
food to several other homeless folks. The smell of the food 
made Lois's mouth water since she hadn't had a proper meal 
in two days.

On seeing her reaction, Linda motioned her to the queue and 
said, "Why don't you get your food while I'll go and 
arrange for your bedding?"

"Err...thanks again. I would have frozen out there if you 
hadn't opened the door."

"It's the reason I'm here, to make sure I can aid those who 
come seeking for help. So don't worry about it." Linda 
smiled reassuringly and Lois took comfort at how dedicated 
she and the other people helping to serve the food seemed 
to be. She was sure that they were all volunteers. 
Remembering the piece she did a long time ago on homeless 
shelters, she would have had to give a good rating for this 
particular homeless shelter. It was well kept and they 
seemed organized.

After getting her food, she looked around for a place to 
sit. There wasn't much of a problem there. It would seem 
that most of the people had turned in right after finishing 
their food. She had hardly finished her food when Linda 
reappeared. 

"How's the food?" Linda asked.

"Good," Lois answered, yawning. Inexplicably, she fe