At Home with Clark and Jim

[stands_for_hope]

[continued from here]

They'd fallen into a routine pretty easily.

Clark had managed to write up something about the church bust without incriminating either of them, which meant that his Perry had been pleased enough with his work for the day and had only yelled at him for five minutes about his failure to show up in the office the whole day. Lois had ribbed him a little, which had been remarked upon as she usually gave the new guy hell if he did anything remotely out of the line, and then she'd ribbed him a lot. He hadn't minded too terribly much since he had visited her afterwards at her apartment and she'd done plenty of kissing to make it better.

With a second person in the apartment, he'd started to fix it up a little, bringing home new linens, keeping the fridge stocked more regularly, and he'd even managed to find a new couch for them through a very kindly older woman and Craigslist.

True to his word, he'd gotten some rudimentary identification for Jim and he walked through the door with a spring in his step, closing the door behind him and plopping it down on the kitchen table with a smile.

Comments

[stands_for_hope]

"In person? Or should I look for any particularly creepy emails or something?"

Clark put his hand on Lois's arm.

"I'll stick by you for the next couple of days. We'll say we're collaborating."

Lois put her other hand on top of Clark's, gave him a twitch of a smile, then looked directly at Jim.

"Tell me what I need to know to pull this off when they do contact me."

[kolodnoykovki]

"It won't be over any kind of traceable communication, so no letters, no emails, no phone calls. They'll come to you in person. You'll be able to tell them by the pin they wear."

He wasn't an artist, but he was able to sketch a rough approximation, which he pushed across to Lois.

"When they tell you 'hail Hydra', you do the same. They'll ask you why you never reported to the higher-ups here in Metropolis. You say your orders came from higher up than them. Hopefully we'll be able to get into the tablet before then. They won't be surprised that it gets accessed, if I'm reporting to you."

[stands_for_hope]

"They won't wonder why I didn't use more official channels? Are there official channels?"

She glanced down at the symbol, somewhat repulsed. She'd seen it before in some historical documents and in some of the paperwork she'd been able to unearth.

Clark nodded along to what Jim was saying.

"We should figure out something you can say if you need us to pull you out."

Lois looked to Jim.

[kolodnoykovki]

"They won't wonder because all of them are looking for leadership. Some minor heads are going to be jockeying for power. Some of them might get angry that you got tapped and not them - especially when they've never heard of you." He paused. "Especially the Clairvoyant. Mention him if you need us to take you out. And tell them you won't meet with them privately without me there. We'll... try to put this together within a week, so we can take them out without you being in too much danger."

[stands_for_hope]

"Is he actually clairvoyant?" she had to ask.

"...will he notice if I mention him?"

[kolodnoykovki]

Jim shook his head. "No. He's one of the Hydra agents in SHIELD, in place to know things and seem clairvoyant. His name is... Garrett. Not sure about more than that."

[stands_for_hope]

She let out a little huff of breath in relief and rewarded him with a brilliant smile.

"Okay! So. I'm heading to a hotel for the night, I need to talk to my contact about the tablet, and otherwise, and everything is in place."

"You're welcome to stay here, Lois. That is--"

He looks to Jim.

"Do you mind if Lois stays over?"

[kolodnoykovki]

Jim shook his head. "You're safer here, Lois," he said, his voice the gentlest it had been so far. "Stay here. Please."

[stands_for_hope]

Lois looked between the two of them before nodding and glancing at Clark. Clark spread his hands up near his face and she laughed, only a little of nerves.

"Rooms yours," Clark told Lois with a nod towards the hallway, "I'll take the couch."

Lois rolled her eyes and stood up, reaching over to hook her hand in his shirt before tugging him out of the chair and down the hallway with her.

"'gnight Jim!"

[kolodnoykovki]

"Goodnight, Lois," he answered, a knowing look in his eyes. He was glad Clark had her. They really seemed to suit, and something in him was gratified to see it.

[stands_for_hope]

[continued here]