There were only three things that could fully dissipate the ignominy of having to show up early to work with a hangover after traversing town in a walk of shame. The first was, without a doubt, coffee.

Lois sipped her mug and tapped the shortcut for refresh on her keyboard. The display on the monitor returned with the same gibberish the office had been encountering since two days ago.

Adjusting the position of the phone propped on her shoulder, she hit speed dial and waited for a familiar voice to answer.

"It's not working, Felicity," Lois grumbled, taking another quick swig of the liquid.

"I'm on it," came Felicity Smoak's reliable reply, the rhythmic sound of fingers flying across a keyboard following that up over the line. "How are you this morning?"

Lois smiled – the second ingredient to making morning-afters bearable was talking to a good friend. "I've had worse. Still can't believe you left the bar at three to fly back to Star City."

Felicity made a sound of mock outrage. "Some of us," she said, "have regular reporting hours."

"The ass in this swivel chair is corroborating the truth of that statement," Lois returned.

"Hope you had a good birthday surprise."

"The best."

There was a distracted pause before Felicity said, "Done. Refresh again and tell me what you see."

Lois did as told. This time the Daily Planet website appeared on her screen and she clicked at a couple of links to make sure everything was in working order. She nearly sighed out loud with contentment - having a problem solved completed the trinity of mood lifters. "You're a genius," she said in a singsong tone, her delight evident in every inflection.

"What, meeting me when I was still at MIT wasn't enough to impress you of that fact?" Lois could hear the grin in her friend's voice and barely suppressed a smile herself as she drew her chair closer to her desk, setting the mug down and pulling her working folder closer to her as she did so. A movement outside the window to her office caught her attention and she turned to see Jimmy Olsen waving to get her attention.

I'm busy, Lois mouthed, before remarking to her friend, "Just affirming a daily truth," She began typing out an email to prod the press room into publishing her latest piece now that that the website was resolved. "What happened?"

There was more frantic movement.

You're in trouble, Jimmy mouthed back, pointing in their editor-in-chief's office. Now.

Lois frowned.

Felicity's voice cut into her thoughts, drawing her attention back to her computer screen. "It was a virus – a very creative virus. I could find out who made it but I'll need time."

Draining her coffee, she stood up and held the phone steady as she smoothed her skirt out and slipped her feet into her heels. "Thanks and let me know when you have saved the Planet."

"Just an average day in the life of Felicity—" her last name was drowned in a yelp and Lois heard a gasp that sounded like "Mr Queen!" before the line was cut. Lois smiled again. Felicity worked for Queen Consolidated, which had recently regained the heir to its considerable wealth with the reappearance of Oliver Queen.

Or, as a very drunk Felicity had said last night, Oliver 'Ridiculously hot playboy extraordinaire' Queen. Who apparently also had a penchant for showing up in the IT department to ask her to research strange items.

As Lois walked towards Perry's office, she dashed off a quick text to Felicity. Ten bucks he's into you.

The reply was instantaneous. You owe me the next drink by making that rash bet.

That was the conclusion to her relatively good morning, because Perry's face when she walked into his office was the epitome of irate.

Perry White had never been good at hiding his emotions. He slammed the stack of photographs he had been scrutinizing down upon seeing her, the action reminiscent of a defenestration he inflicted before a terrible intern last month to make his point more visceral.

"Miss Lane." He said gravely, from behind the dark oak desk he sat.

"Perry," Lois replied by way of greeting, approaching his desk and looking him calmly in the eye.

Perry took his time to interlace his fingers and place them before him. "Would you care to explain, Miss Lane, how you understood the meaning of the word 'injunction' a week ago?"

Lois pressed her lips together as she thought of how to simultaneously placate and fob him off.

"And may I remind you, Miss Lane, that we are a noble institution dedicated to the pursuit and recount of the truth, before you begin thinking of spinning any yarn?"

She bit the inside of her mouth to keep from smirking. Perry's wit only grew sharper when coupled with his ire, and this was no occasion to smile.

"I did not enter Lexcorp or even trespass onto its land," she pointed out.

"It seems we understand the court order Luthor took out against you rather differently. The gag order for the Daily Planet aside, it is specified very clearly that Miss Lois Lane," he pulled out the document and read, "will not pursue Luthor by car or motorcycle, place him under surveillance, loiter or wait within fifty feet of Lexcorp's main office and Luthor's residence to monitor or record his movements in the forms such as, but not limited to, photographs, videos, sound recordings, in light of her acts of harassment against Lexcorp and Luthor himself." He looked up. "Don't roll your eyes at me, Lane. You were in the café across the street, which you well knew was but twenty feet away. With a pair of binoculars and a camera."

"Legal said we will appeal," she ground out.

"And we are appealing," Perry agreed. "But until the appellate court decides that Luthor is violating the sanctity of the principles on which the Fourth Estate thrives on, I only have three words for you each time you even think of Luthor and Lexcorp: contempt of court. Let Olsen take charge of looking into the case."

Lois set her hands down on Perry's desk, a profane baptism of hot anger washing over her. "Jimmy is a photographer. It's my story. My leads."

Perry almost simpered. "How very convenient that we believe strongly in sharing here at the Planet then, Lois."

Lois closed her eyes in annoyance. She drew back up to her full height again, waiting for Perry to finish. He had been her mentor ever since she began working at the Planet and she knew his desire to protect the firm would never give way to his indulgence of her investigative reporting instincts.

"I mean it, Lois. You can get back on this the moment Legal gives us the OK but until then you must swear on the spirit of Nellie Bly that you will let this be."

"Blasphemy," she hissed, though half-heartedly because he would not have invoked her personal idol and heroine of all time if he were still furious. "May I pursue another of my leads then?" Being allowed to pick her own tasks would make being forced to relinquish her story to another reporter infinitely less galling. She could go after the rumour that there was very interesting activity going on in Palmer Technologies, she thought. Or, if she was desperate, even the ridiculous urban legend concerning the spectral blur of red and blue that was appearing at crime scenes in Metropolis. Like the bank, her mind suggested. It was mere coincidence Metropolitan Bank just happened to be next to Lexcorp.

"Absolutely not," Perry said. "Given how territorial you are, you're just going to take an angle at something that is a cover for investigating Lexcorp."

Damn. Perry knew her too well. "What will you have me do then? Push pens while contemplating how my next Pulitzer is going to go to somebody else because of pesky court orders?"

"I'd have you take that impertinent attitude and go downstairs to do some babysitting. We have a new recruit and you're going to show him the ropes for his trial period. Ask for a Clark Kent and try not to make him cry on his first day."

"Hell no," Lois said. The last thing she wanted to do was to drag a rookie around town as he worked on typical first-year assignments such as covering weddings. "Come on Perry, I got my friend to fix the website this morning after it got hacked. You know the only reason why I agreed to come back to Metropolis was so I could work on real stuff. If this is a temporary reassignment, put me in…sports or something. I'll even write about the Kardashians."

"Hell yes, Lois," Perry said, mimicking her choice of words. "You came back to our local office because Russia, Georgia and South Ossetia both asked our government to retrieve you five months ago. And Libya two months ago. You'll be back in Foreign Affairs soon enough, but until then my word stands. And now I say you go quietly and with dignity before I start slow-clapping for myself this early in the day."

The day could go stuff itself, Lois thought, as she stalked out of his office and headed for the elevator.

"Well it could be worse," Jimmy said, thumbing through the box of materials relating to Lois' investigation of Lexcorp. "At least Perry said he'd let you get back on this once Legal gets our appeal through."

"It could take ages," Lois groaned. "The one interesting, big story I got since coming back…"

"He could also have given your case to your biggest competitor in this office rather than your only true friend here," Jimmy pointed out.

"Don't get too full of yourself, Olsen." She shoved him playfully.

"Who else is going to watch out for your amazing inability to wear matching shoes?" Jimmy shrugged. That was a running joke between them, a reference to Lois' first late day to work after a rather too wild night-out. Jimmy had covered for her and their friendship had cemented thereafter. "Or rate how hot the new guys are with you."

"The Kent kid is definitely a not."

"You've not even met him yet, in all of the twenty minutes you've been waiting in this room," Jimmy said. Lois had sat herself down on the plush chairs next to the reception when she arrived to find that the rookie had left shortly after reporting to reception, leaving only the message that he would be back soon. Jimmy had just dropped in on her to discharge his duties as a friend, on the pretext that he needed to ensure that all her research had been handed over to his keeping. "Do your research before you tell your stories, Lane."

"He's late." Lois said by way of explanation.

"A cardinal sin when it comes to your proclivities," Jimmy agreed, "but the gossip from HR is that the man is quite good looking. Besides, I've never known the cynical Lois Lane to be interested in anything more than a booty call."

"I don't have time…" Lois began her usual mantra.

"…for a man," Jimmy finished. "We know, Lane. You're determined to be the spinster queen of cat ladies, as well as the Nellie Bly of our generation."

Lois replied with a good-natured obscenity, but she could not keep the grin off her face. "The Kent kid is going to be grateful he even has a booty by the time I'm done with his hide if he still doesn't show in the next ten minutes."

Rising from his seat, Jimmy paused to pat Lois's shoulder, an expression of indulgence across his clean-cut face. Play nice, he mouthed as he disappeared into the crowd entering the elevator.

Lois glanced at the clock hanging on the wall to her right. It was time to leave if she wanted to make the pre-set interview time for the piece she was co-writing with the rookie. Leaving a message at the reception desk for the rookie, she got up and headed for the carpark, where she kept a change of clothes stashed in her Mini.

Kent had been instructed to interview an old couple that had just auctioned off their son's vintage teddy bear at an obscenely high price. Accordingly it was ideal if her clothes had less of a corporate feel and a more casual vibe.

Picking up her lipstick from where it lay on the car floor, she gave her appearance a quick survey to ensure she would be presentable to the interviewees and checked her watch again before stepping on the gas.

If the Kent kid even got around to showing up, she would eviscerate him.