scene iii

Daily Planet. The elevator opened and Lois & Clark walked out together. They stopped at Jimmy's desk. He was working on his computer.

"Morning, Jimmy," said Clark.

Jimmy didn't notice.

"Jimmy?" said Lois.

"Earth to Jimmy," said Clark.

"What?" Jimmy asked, still looking at the screen. Then he glanced over at them, back to the screen, sort of grinned, and turned back to Lois & Clark. "Oh. Morning, guys. I was just... um, running down some leads for a story..."

"Funny," said Clark, grinning, "it looks more to me like you're having a conversation in a chatroom." Clark leaned in to look at the screen. "Or more specifically, flirting in a chatroom."

"Oh... yeah... well, you know how it is. You start searching the Net for work-related purposes, then before you know it, you get sidetracked. It's not like there are any terribly important stories to work on, anyway. Actually, the last few weeks have been kinda boring, don't you think?"

"Don't let Perry hear you talk like that," said Lois. "This job is a sacred trust, we have an obligation to the public to keep them informed. There are no unimportant stories." Then she leaned in and lowered her voice a little. "But just between you and me, I've been known to play a little Doom during working hours. Especially the last few weeks."

Clark grinned at her. "Doom, Lois?"

She grinned back. "Hey, you don't know everything about me yet."

"No, but I always enjoy learning." And, as they so often do these days, they kissed.

Jimmy grinned, and went back to his chatroom. Lois & Clark went to Perry's office. Clark knocked on the door, opened it, and stuck his head in.

"Morning, Chief. What's up?"

"What? Oh, morning, Clark." Clark entered the room, followed by Lois. "Morning, Lois. What are you two up to? Any good stories today?"

"All our stories are good," said Lois. "But nothing spectacular. I don't suppose you know of any really great stories for us to look into?"

"Uh, no, not at the moment. Well, why don't you get out there and see what you can dig up."

"Whatcha doin' on the computer, Chief?" asked Clark.

"What? Oh, nothing much. Uh, now, don't you two have some work to do?"

"Sure. See ya." And they left.

Pan to Perry's computer, where we can see he's in the same chatroom as Jimmy, coincidentally.

Back at their desks, Lois & Clark sat down and had a cup of coffee. "Jimmy's right, you know," said Lois. "The past few weeks have been kind of boring. No big stories. No one trying to kill us. There hasn't even been much in the way of crime or disaster for Superman to worry about."

"Complaining, Lois?" asked Clark.

"Well... I don't know. At first, it was really nice to have more free time to relax, to be together without interruptions. Don't get me wrong, it still is nice. I'd like our lives to be like this more often. But I guess I've sort of gotten used to a certain level of excitement, too. I kind of miss it. It might be nice to have some time like the past few weeks and time like how our lives normally are, more evenly divided. Maybe a week of peace and then a week of danger. I don't know, maybe I'm asking too much. Life can't be perfect, I suppose."

"Maybe not, but I know what you mean. It has been a little boring. Still, at least we've had time to catch up on things. Reading, eating out, going to the movies, cleaning..."

"Cleaning? Is that one of your leisure activities of choice?"

"Well, no, but we have done some cleaning."

"I suppose so, but... were you finished your list of leisure activities? Because I could think of at least one you missed," she said with a smile.

"So could I. I just rather thought that one went without saying."

Just then, as if to save us from this tedious chatter, Clark's phone rang. He picked it up. "Hello? ...Oh, hi, Dr. Dussel. ...What? ...Thank you, we'll be right there." He hung up. "Lois, that was Dr. Dussel. He said Tempus escaped last night."

"So much for boredom. Let's go."

scene iv


I went looking all over the Net to find the name of the doctor Lois & Clark talked to in the episode "Meet John Doe," the best I found was the name of the actor who played a Doctor Dussel, in the guest cast list of some episode guides. In no episode synopsis I found, even the one really really really detailed one I found, was the doctor named anywhere other than the guest cast list. This might not seem to be a problem, but the thing is, for all I know, "Dr. Dussel" could be a completely different doctor from the one I'm thinking of. He could work at STAR Labs or something-- but this is a very remote possibility at best. I'm actually being overly cautious here. I have absolutely no reason to think the doctor I'm looking for is not Dussel.