A Chief Dilemma               
     

     Perry sat behind his desk at the Daily Planet, his chair swiveled 
away from the doorway, facing the back wall.  He was staring at a small 
cardboard box on the floor that had been pushed back against the wall and 
partially covered by the office debris that was scattered about the room.  He 
looked at it for several seconds, seemingly unsure of what to do next.  He 
knew what was in the box, but he didn't want to look at its contents, for fear
of what might happen if he did.  He turned his chair back around, slightly, 
and looked out through his office door to the Planet newsroom.  The huge room 
was quiet, the lights were dimmed, and except for the janitor, Renate, the 
Daily Planet newsroom was empty.  

     His glance fell to the desk directly across from his office door--that
of Lois Lane, well actually, now that he realized it, Lois Kent.  They'd 
finally managed to get to the altar with almost everything intact.  Ah, 
youth...those two must having the time of their lives right now, what with 
everything that had conspired to keep Lois and Clark apart for what seemed to 
Perry to be an agonizingly long time...and if he felt that way about that 
horrible situation, Elvis only knew what the two of them had had to go 
through.  Perry shook his head.  Another more perfect but start-crossed pair 
he knew he'd never meet again.  They'd be coming back from their honeymoon 
this evening.  They told Perry that they planned to start work again at the 
Planet the next morning...which would be tomorrow.  Perry couldn't wait to see
their faces when they walked into the Planet.  They'd probably both be shining
and giggling and having the time of their lives and he wouldn't be the one to 
stop them.  Oh no, they were going to get a good treatment tomorrow...after 
that, perhaps he'd start cracking down on them again.  They had never really 
needed his 'cracking down' however.  They were always working hard--too hard, 
it seemed at times.  Well, whatever happened, he was looking forward to having
them back in the newsroom again.  There seemed to be a huge hole without them 
there.   

     Perry sighed quietly as he looked at the empty newsroom.  He could 
hear Renate's mop squeaking occasionally as she wrung it out in the bucket.  
It seemed uncannily quiet for this time of night.  Even though it was late, 
Perry felt something was missing from the scene.  He had sent Jimmy home early
that afternoon--he'd been suffering from a pretty miserable head cold and 
looked like he needed a lot of rest.  Perhaps that was it...but no, not 
entirely.  As reluctant as he was to admit it, he missed that nagging feeling 
that had always plagued him around this time of night for over thirty years--
that his wife wanted him to come home, that he'd stayed out too late once 
again, worked too long, left her to climb into a lonely bed.  As much as he 
hadn't like the feeling before his...divorce, as much as he'd made jokes about
it and grumbled about it, he missed it.  He didn't feel wanted, he felt like 
he'd been left adrift, aimlessly floating about on the sea of life, no really 
close confidante for him to talk to.  Jimmy was a great kid, but he just 
didn't know the ways of love yet.  Perry took a deep breath in, held it for a 
couple seconds, and raggedly let it out.  He could only hope for Lois and 
Clark...try everything he knew to help them.  Which brought him back to the box.

     It was a nondescript white cardboard box, one he'd probably seen used 
for general packaging a thousand times.  It was the generic Post Office issue 
for mailing good-sized objects or a stack of incriminating manila folders to
the city prosecutor's office.

     There were no words on it, no address or return address, no packing 
tape, nothing.  Just a plain, white, cardboard box with a lift-off cover.  He 
reached down, and grunting slightly, pulled the box out from under the 
discarded office notes and copies of the Daily Planet and a stack of Elvis 
Christmas cards.  The box itself wasn't heavy, or at least its contents 
weren't.  Perry lifted it up to his desk, but after a second, lowered it back 
down to the floor behind his desk.  It wouldn't do at all for Renate to 
accidentally catch sight of it.  The less people who knew about this box, the 
better.  Perry rested his arms on his knees and looked down at the white cover
on the box between his feet.  Looking at it, he felt as if he was in the 
presence of something that could easily destroy law and order in Metropolis, 
perhaps even the world, if knowledge of what he had fell into the hands of the
wrong people.  Shaking his head slightly, he reached down with both hands and 
lifted off the box's cover.

     Laying the cover aside, he looked down at the red cape that was 
unceremoniously pushed down and crumpled in the box.  It looked exactly as he 
had left it the last time he'd seen it.  He breathed a deep sigh of relief.  
No one had touched it since then, and thinking optimistically, he was the only
one who knew of its whereabouts.  Jimmy had seen it, but there had been no 
questions asked when it disappeared shortly after the incident that had landed
the box in Perry's office.  Perhaps Jimmy had forgotten about it.  What with 
the whirlwind of events since that day, the box had even slipped Perry's mind 
for a few months.  It would be better if Jimmy never remembered it.  

     Perry looked at the red material that held so much symbolism for the 
entire world.  The gold-colored S-shield curved and folded with the material 
it was affixed to.  Perry reached down into the box and lifted the red cape 
out part way, straightening out the S-shield and smoothing it against his 
hand.  Funny, the thought occurred to him that the shield needed to be ironed 
before it would smooth out completely.  He had never thought of Superman 
needing to iron his clothes before.  The thought didn't surprise him, however.
He'd always harbored a secret belief that Superman was really someone else 
who lived a normal life.  Watching the superhero's movements, they seemed to 
him so cardboard-like, so two-dimensional, like their sole purpose was to put 
on a facade.  A real, whole person could never be so...flat.  Perry ran his 
fingers over the gold shield, smoothing it the best he could.  The material 
felt so plain, a little rough, even.  It wasn't the soft fabric he'd thought 
it would be.  The thought struck him that this cape and emblem seemed 
homemade.  It was a strange feeling.

     Renate's floor buffer whirred to life a few feet away from his office 
door.  Perry jumped slightly in his chair at the sound.  He lowered the cape 
behind his desk quickly and glanced out the doorway at the cleaning woman.  
She was humming to herself over the whine of the buffer and going along, 
completely oblivious to the man sitting behind the huge mahogany desk in the 
Editor-in-Chief's office.  Perry watched her for a minute, noting her every 
move.  Satisfying himself that she was completely engrossed in buffing the 
newsroom floor, he turned back to resume what he had been doing.  

     He pulled the rest of the red material out of the box and left it 
draped partially across his knee and partially across the arm of his chair.  
He looked back down into the box and stared for a few seconds at the two
things sitting on the bottom:  a small, paint-spattered note with a hideous 
outline of a smiling skull drawn on it and a softball-sized chunk of 
kryptonite.  

     The piece of kryptonite was the only one Perry had seen since he'd 
first heard of the material three years ago in an article that Lois had 
written.  At the time, it had only been theory that the substance could harm 
or even kill Superman, but now, three years later, it was proven fact that it 
could harm the Man of Steel and force him to his knees.  Perry grimaced 
slightly at the thought.  He'd read Lois' piece on that story, too.  Her 
description of the scene between Superman and that kryptonite-powered cyborg 
was chilling, and it was little surprise that her writing had had such an 
emotional impact.  Her writing had never been the emotional type, usually just
cold facts and a lot of hinted accusations, but in that piece, he could tell 
she'd been deeply affected.  He couldn't bear to tell her that she was too 
close to the story, so he ran her piece on the front page, in spite of its 
definite bias.

     Now that Perry had a piece of this lethal substance, he was loathe to 
move too quickly in how to deal with it.  At the same time, he knew that the 
longer he kept it relatively unprotected, the more risk there was of someone 
finding it and using it with disastrous consequences.  He had to get the 
information of its whereabouts to Superman and find out how to deal with it.  
If he called for Superman himself, there was a good chance he'd show up to 
help with whatever Perry needed...however, Perry didn't want to let the piece 
of kryptonite out of his sight, now.  And if it wasn't out of his sight, it 
wouldn't be out of Superman's sight, so he'd most likely be unable to stay 
near it long enough to effectively destroy it...  Perry shook his head.  What 
a quandary.  What would the King do in a situation like this?  Perry knew well
that the fate of the entire city of Metropolis, not to mention the world, 
could hinge on how he handled the situation.  What to do?  Perry sat thinking 
for several seconds, going over every possible way he could contact Superman 
and not expose him to the kryptonite.  None of them seemed to work. 

     Perhaps he'd have to get word to him through someone else, STAR labs 
perhaps.  No--too risky.  He knew there were bound to be people in that huge 
place whose loyalties definitely tended towards the criminal.  He needed 
someone he could trust and could get word to Superman for him.  Then, 
suddenly, it occurred to him.  The only two people who could contact the Man 
of Steel at what seemed to be a moment's notice.  He had no idea how they did 
it, but they were two people he knew he could trust.  Lois and Clark Kent.   

     Perry left the cape and the note inside the white cardboard box and 
hid it back against the wall under the office debris and Elvis memorabilia.  
He took the chunk of kryptonite home, hidden in his briefcase, and slept 
peacefully the whole night.

     ******************************     

     Lois got up early the next morning.  Well, early compared to what time
she'd been getting up over the last week or so.  She smiled to herself, 
remembering some secret joke that she and her new...husband were sharing at 
the moment.  Mmm.   The thought was reassuring.  Finally finally finally, she 
hummed to herself and the percolating coffee.  She was tempted to go over to 
her husband and tickle him awake, but then, he'd been out late last night with
that overturned tractor trailer out on Metropolis' parkway.  A few extra 
minutes wouldn't hurt.  He could probably be ready for work in a little under 
three minutes, anyway, so Lois decided to stay and hum to the coffeemaker.       

     She heard him shifting around a little on the bed and changed her mind.

               ******************************

     When Perry arrived at the newsroom that morning, he arrived to find a 
small festivity underway for the newlyweds.  Slapping backs and female 
giggling was about the extent of it, but to his strained situation, it seemed 
to be a minor party.  

     "What is this, the Sheehawkin' Gazette?  Let's get some work done 
around here!" he shouted with the appropriate volume.  Everyone hopped to 
their desks and made themselves busy quickly, leaving Lois and Clark standing 
next to her desk raising their eyebrows slightly at each other at the sudden 
disturbance.  They hadn't expected their boss to be so heavy-handed this 
morning.  

     "Morning, Chief," Clark said, as Perry walked down to them.  Perry 
broke into a shaky smile when he saw them.  

     "Good morning, you two.  Have a good time?" he asked, with a 
mischievous glint in his eye.  Lois and Clark, however, had had their share of
expected ribbing already that morning and took it in stride.

     "We sure did, Chief," said Lois, with an equally mischievous glint.  
Clark just grinned.  Abruptly, Perry changed into a serious mode.

     "I need to see you two kids in my office as soon as you're able," he 
said as he continued walking by.  As he turned towards his office, Clark 
suddenly took in a sharp breath.  

     Lois, misinterpreting the action, turned back towards Clark, and when 
Perry was out of earshot, mumbled, "I wonder what's happened while we were
gone.  He seems pretty tense, huh?  I expected at least an 'I remember when 
Elvis married Priscilla' anecdote."  Clark smiled at her attempt to lighten 
the situation.  He wondered what had come over him just a few seconds earlier.
Oddly, it felt like the sharp, stabbing pains he felt when...but no, the stuff
wasn't anywhere around that he could see...

     Lois looked up to see his reaction to her statement.  He was smiling 
at her, but he looked a little pale.  Strange.  "Clark, are you feeling okay?"
she asked quietly, worried.  He nodded and took a deep breath.  

     "I felt a little strange there for a second.  Maybe I overexerted 
myself last night with that tractor trailer," he replied.  Lois looked at him 
critically.  They both knew that idea was pretty farfetched.  

     "Well, let's go see what the--"  Clark started as he looked over at 
the Editor-in-Chief's office.  Perry was pulling all the blinds down on the 
windows facing the newsroom.  "What's he doing?" Clark whispered.  Lois shook 
her head.

     "I don't know," she whispered back, "but whatever it is he wanted to 
tell us, it must be pretty important."  Clark nodded.  The newsroom seemed to 
be at its normal fever pitch for this time of the morning.  Everything seemed 
to be in place, and looking through the blinds, Perry's office was in its 
usual almost-organized order.  Clark still had an unshakable feeling of 
something going on, though.  

     "Everything looks okay.  Let's go see what new assignment he's got for
us," Clark said quietly.  He could tell Lois was building everything up in her
mind.  She was letting a hundred possible reasons of why Perry would be 
closing his office off from the newsroom's prying eyes flood through her mind,
and there was a definite anticipation in her stance.  Clark smiled to himself.
He loved to watch her when she got all worked up.  They walked over to Perry's
office door, which was open just a crack, and poked their heads in.

     "Ah, Chief?  You wanted to see us?" Lois asked, glancing around the 
office.  The blinds were closed on the side facing the street, too.  It was 
pretty dark with all the light blocked out, and the dimness in the room only 
contributed to Clark's heightening sense of foreboding.  Perry was sitting 
behind his desk, his chair facing to the side, and was looking at something 
that seemed to be on the floor.  He looked up quickly at the sound of Lois' 
voice and looked visibly relieved at seeing them there.

     "Come in, come in.  Go ahead and sit down, too.  We might be here for 
a while.  Close that door behind you, won't you?"  He sat up a bit straighter 
in his chair and turned part way around to face them.  Lois edged in and sat 
down in the big armchair across from Perry's desk.  Clark shut the door behind 
himself and heard a tiny click as he did so.  The door was locked.  He tensed 
slightly and looked quickly around the room.  Everything seemed fine, except 
for a heavy feeling of being closed in.  He wondered if Lois felt it too.   

     "Go ahead and sit down, there, Clark," Perry said as he waved his arm 
in a small movement towards the sofa on the far wall.  

     "If it's okay, Chief, I'd prefer to stand," Clark replied.  Lois 
looked up at him questioningly as he took his place beside her and propped his 
elbow on the armchair.  He didn't look down at her.  

     "Oh, no problem, no problem," Perry said, distractedly, as he looked 
back down at the floor behind his desk.  Lois began to wonder why everything 
seemed...heavy.  Perry usually never repeated everything he said twice.  That 
he was doing so disconcerted her.  Clark seemed tense next to her.  She took a
deep breath and let it out slowly.  What was going to happen?

     Perry turned and looked at his two best reporters.  Yes, he could 
trust them with the fate of the planet.  They'd been in the thick of it before 
and knew how to handle it.  He had to do this and get it through with quickly. 
Besides, he hated the oppressive feeling in the room, something that told him 
that what he was about to do would not just be passing the lethal substance to 
his two reporters but would also be endangering their lives.  The thought made 
him hesitate for a second.  No, this was the best way to deal with this.  He 
took a deep breath and started.

     "Do you two remember that whole situation a few months ago with Tim 
and Amber Lake?" he asked.  From the looks on their faces, that situation was 
clear as day to them and they didn't want to dredge it all up again.  Perry felt 
sorry for them, knowing what they'd gone through, almost loosing each other 
and--stay on track here, old boy.  

     "Well, remember how we thought that you'd...died, Lois?"  Perry didn't 
even want to look at their faces for the reaction to that one.  "Shortly after 
we received that anonymous videotape that we later learned was sent to us by 
the Lakes, I received another anonymous package..."  Perry reached down behind 
his desk to pick up the white cardboard box.  Both Lois and Clark tensed 
involuntarily as the box was brought up and put on top of the desk.  Perry 
stood up and lifted the cover off of it.  "Jimmy and I opened this up and 
found these things."  He reached inside the box and pulled out a red cape with 
a gold S-shield on it.  Clark's eyes widened considerably.  Lois' face said 
nothing.  She'd decided to put on a poker face, since anything she said or did 
wrong could accidentally betray Clark.  

     Perry put the cape on his desk next to the box and reached inside to 
pick up a small note from off the bottom.  Both Lois and Clark immediately 
recognized the painted-spattered paper and the skull.  What neither of them 
could figure out, however, was why Perry was telling them all this, and why 
the big production about it.

     "These aren't the only things I found in this box," he continued, 
"There was one other item that I'd forgotten about all these months.  I didn't 
want to keep it, since I couldn't keep it properly protected."  He stopped and 
looked at Lois and Clark.  Were they following him so far?  Lois, he couldn't 
figure out what she was thinking.  Clark, on the other hand, looked like he 
was putting some pieces together pretty quickly, but still didn't know what 
the final picture was supposed to look like.  Perry turned around and picked 
up his briefcase from off the floor, where he had hidden it behind a stack of 
copy paper.  As he put it on his desk and started to open it, he didn't 
noticed Clark blink quickly a couple of times and shake his head.  

     Lois saw Clark's movement out of the corner of her eye, but was too 
engrossed in watching what Perry was doing to take notice of it.  Perry 
quickly lifted the chunk of kyptonite out of his briefcase and snapped it 
shut.  Before he realized what had happened, Clark let out a weak "No!" and 
collapsed back against the corner of the couch, his head hitting the carved 
wood and twisting away from the edge too late.  He hit the floor with a 
sickening thud, crumpled up between the protruding edge of the sofa and the 
legs of the armchair that Lois was sitting in.  Lois gave a little cry and 
jumped out the chair faster than Perry thought possible.  She was kneeling on 
the floor next to Clark in an instant, her hand going to the blood seeping 
into his hair on the back of his head.  His face was turned away from the edge 
of the sofa and his skin was paler that Perry had ever seen it before.  He was 
still holding the chunk of kryptonite out above the desk when Lois suddenly 
looked toward him, her face almost as white as Clark's.

     "Get it away!"  she hissed.  Seeing Perry was still staring at Clark's 
fallen form in front of his desk, she leapt up, grabbed the chunk of 
kryptonite, went around the desk, and stuffed the chunk in his coat.  

     "Help me pull him away from the door," she said quietly, and went back 
over to support her husband's head and shoulders.  Perry woke up and moved 
around to take Clark's legs.  

     "On the sofa?" he asked, his throat dry.  Lois shook her head.

     "He's too heavy for just the two of us...just pull him away enough so 
that I can open the door."

     "Open the door?!"  Perry squeaked out.  Lois just looked at him and 
nodded for him to pull.  They moved Clark's body out from between the sofa and 
the armchair, and Lois gently lowered his head to the floor again.  

     "I'll be right back.  Leave the blinds shut!" she whispered as she 
unlocked the door.  "He'll be all right."  She slipped out the office door and 
shut it behind her.  Perry stood by Clark's feet for several seconds, 
dumbfounded by the events in the last forty seconds.  What in Graceland...?

     He looked down at Clark.  His face was already gaining some of its 
color back.  His glasses had been knocked askew by his fall.  Perry reached 
down to take them off and noticed one of the lenses was cracked.  He gently 
cradled Clark's head and slipped them off.  How could so much have happened so 
quickly?  He looked up quickly at Lois' insistent knock.  What had happened so 
quickly?  

     When he let Lois in, he noticed that she was carrying her shoulder-bag. 
He quickly shut and locked the door behind him as she moved over to Clark and 
unzipped her bag.  She pulled out a small pouch and gestured for Perry to come 
closer.

     "Put the kryptonite in this," she whispered, handing it to him.  He 
nearly dropped it.  It was heavier than a bag its size should have been.  He 
looked at her questioningly.

     "Lead-lined," she whispered, as she reached inside her bag and pulled 
out a pair of glasses identical to the broken ones Perry held in his hand.  
She looked back up at him, noticing that he hadn't moved since she'd last told 
him to.  "Hurry, Chief, please!"

     He quickly moved over Clark and put the piece of kryptonite in the 
small pouch.  Almost immediately, Clark's breathing returned to normal, and he 
groaned slightly.  Lois bent over him and turned his head farther to the side. 
She took out some dripping wet paper napkins from her shoulder-bag and began to 
wipe the blood from the back of her husband's head.  

     Perry, still somewhat in shock, watched Lois kneeling on the floor.  
He looked at Clark's face, the color now fully returned to it, and back up to 
Lois' calm one.  Clark opened his eyes a crack and looked at the base of 
Perry's desk.  He tried to move, but Lois' hand prevented him from turning his 
head.  Perry watched as Clark closed his eyes again.  Suddenly, the 
strangeness of seeing Clark without his glasses struck him, and he gasped.  He 
looked closer, and suddenly all the strange pieces fell together for him.  Why 
Lois was so calm...why she wasn't in tears, why Clark was so strangely calm, 
too.  Why everything had happened so fast.  Perry blinked to confirm that he 
was, indeed, not dreaming the whole thing.  

     "Great Caesar's Ghost!" he breathed, plopping back down into his 
chair, in one hand, Clark's broken glasses, and in the other, the lead-lined 
pouch.  

               ******************************

     "So, Chief...now that this whole thing is over, what are you 
thinking?" Clark asked, sitting down at his and Lois' apartment for dinner 
with Perry.  Perry had been feeling alone that evening, with Jimmy at home 
sick and no one else to go to.  Lois, sensing his mood, had invited him over 
for their first 'let's-entertain-a-guest-for-dinner-now-that-we're-married' 
feast.  Perry grinned.

     "Oh, let's see...I've been considering all the blackmail 
possibilities, but since I already know what you make for a salary, I've come 
to the conclusion that it wouldn't be worth it," he replied, reaching for the 
mashed--or should he say 'smashed', watching Lois beat at them with a 
seemingly unsatisfied vengeance--potatoes.  Clark raised his eyebrows at the 
remark and feigned hurt.

     "Oooh.  A double insult, there, Chief," Lois shot back, grinning.

     "Mm!  I hadn't considered blackmailing both of you...now there's a 
possibility," Perry grinned as he spooned a rather sizeable lump onto his plate.

     "You won't have to, Chief.  You can get just as much out of us by 
coming over here to eat instead."

     "Oo-hoo-hoo.  Now you're insulting me, there, Clark," Perry said, 
putting all his weight of the being Daily Planet's Editor-in-Chief into his 
reply.

     "Isn't he scary?"  Lois whispered loudly to Clark.  "Maybe we should 
blackmail *him*."

     "It's a thought," he replied, studiously avoiding Perry's gaze.

     "Seriously, though.  I don't really know what to think of everything, 
besides the fact that a lot of the things about you two make sense now...like 
how you're able to find the things you do in your investigations, your 
constant disappearances," Perry said, nodding towards Clark.  "I just want you 
two to know that if you ever need anything; a getaway, a day off, an excuse 
for why you've been gone for the past three hours without a word to anyone, 
advice, I'll do my best.  It seems Jonathan and Martha have done an excellent 
job in that last part already."  He paused.  "I do have one question, though," 
he said, looking at Clark.

     "What is it?"

     "Ah...hmm...ah..."  Perry floundered, embarrassed.  Lois and Clark 
looked at each other quickly, their faces turning slightly pink.  Clark 
cleared his throat.

     "What do you want to know, Chief?"  He asked, slowly.  Perry took a 
deep breath.

     "You're a grown man, Clark...don't you sometimes feel ridiculous in 
that suit?"

     Clark nearly choked on his food.  Lois broke up laughing.  Perry 
turned bright red.  There.  He'd finally said it.  He never thought he'd get 
the chance.  

     Clark took a swallow of his drink, his own cheeks a bit red.  The last 
time he'd been asked this question, it had been by a lunatic who hated him.  
His reply had been smug and had come easily then, but for some reason, now 
that he was going to answer Perry with it, it sounded ludicrous.  Lois said it 
for him.

     "His mother made it for him," Lois blurted out, still laughing.  Perry 
thought he'd never heard anything so ludicrous in his life.

3-13-96 

© 1996 Rachel Smith