Author’s note: This section makes reference to events in the “Smallville” TV series Season Three episode “Truth”, Season Six episode “Prototype”, and Season Seven episode “Bizarro”.
Perry got into his nondescript sedan from the Planet parking garage. He’d listened to teasing from Lois and Clark about his choice of wheels all the way to his parking space. Finally, he retorted.
“Lois, you’re a fine one to talk! At least my car is inconspicuous!” Perry said in mock anger. “It’s kind of hard to go on a stakeout in Suicide Slum with the latest model. You’ve had so many new cars it’s like you’re a shill for the auto companies.”
“Well, if the bad guys didn’t keep blowing them up….” Lois said.
Perry didn’t let her talk, turning to Clark. “And you! You don’t even need a car!”
Clark smiled and shrugged, not abashed in the least. “Well, yeah.”
“So stop ragging on me! We can’t all drive the latest Audi, can we, Lois?”
“Right, Chief,” she said happily, recognizing Perry’s pretend ire for what it was. But she stopped the teasing.
Perry drove out past the parking lot gatehouse, turned onto the potholed street (hm, this road is really bad – better do another series on who’s getting the contract for repairing Metropolis streets) and set off for Lois and Richard’s house. He was alone in the front; Clark and Lois had chosen to ride together in the back seat. Perry peered at them in his rearview mirror. The two sat carefully on opposite ends of the seat, meticulously seatbelted as required by New Troy state law, body language as well as distance maintaining their separation.
They did talk together, though. Lois had forgiven Clark to that extent. And conversation was easy between them. Clark had leaned forward and taken a breath when Perry interrupted him.
“Clark?”
“Yes, Perry?”
“I was going to tune to the traffic station and see where today’s bottlenecks are, but you can do better than that for us, can’t you?”
Clark had a blank look on his face for a moment, then smiled. Perry supposed it was a nice change from the usual Superman requests – save me, rescue my kids from the fire, stop the muggers, catch the bullets. Perry didn’t know it if was entirely kosher to ask Superman to plan your route home with the express intent of avoiding traffic tie-ups, but he was going to ask anyway. He’d spent too many hours creeping home or worse, idling at a standstill while emergency services cleared away some accident or obstruction.
“Sure, Perry,” Clark said, chuckling a little. He took off his glasses and stared intently ahead for a short time.
“Good thing you asked me,” Clark said. “Big backup on the highway - “
“Is it a job for Superman?” Lois asked, only partly sarcastically.
“No, it’s some fender benders that are well in hand. If Superman comes, the gawker delays will be worse than what they’ve got right now.”
Perry cleared his throat.
“Oh,” Clark said. “Well, if you turn here, and take Maple to Fifth, and then go on, you should avoid the worst of it.”
“After that?” Perry asked.
“I’ll check as we go, give you updates.”
“OK. Thanks,” Perry replied. He followed Clark’s directions and turned onto a relatively traffic-free side street. “I guess waiting in traffic jams is annoying for you, huh?”
“Oh God,” Clark moaned, “it’s torture. When I’m stuck in a car, and it’s going to be an hour before we get there, and I could fly and get there in five seconds….”
Lois snorted.
“Except with Lois, of course,” Clark hastily backtracked. “I don’t mind being with her.”
Awkward silence. Then everyone jumped in at once.
“What’d you use to drive in Smallville?” Perry asked desperately.
“Do you remember that time that Whitney Fordman’s truck blew up and he was OK? That was you, wasn’t it?” asked Lois.
“Lois, do you remember that time on the Loeb Bridge when I had to inject you with the truth serum antidote?” Clark blurted.
Silence again.
Perry stepped in. “Well, Clark, your story sounds the most interesting – you go ahead.”
Clark looked trapped. “Uh, well, we were sophomores in high school, and Chloe, I mean Lois, had gotten into Luthorcorp and managed to get contaminated with a kryptonite-based serum. Whenever she questioned anyone, they had to tell the truth.”
“Pretty good tool for a reporter,” Perry grunted, avoiding a hurtling bicyclist zooming past on his right.
Lois had what Perry was coming to think of as “the memory restored” look. “Yeah,” she said slowly, “but I found out that people need their secrets.”
Perry turned his head, gave her a questioning look.
“I destroyed a woman’s life – she was a fugitive from justice, and I made her betray herself,” Lois said. “If Clark hadn’t been immune to the truth serum, he would have told his secret right then, and I would have published it.” She shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “That episode taught me something. Maybe it’s right to find out, but is it right to publish?”
“Speaking as one who has secrets of his own, I’m a lot more inclined to give people the benefit of the doubt,” Clark said quietly. He turned to Lois. “Do you remember….” He went off on a long tangent, and Perry saw Lois’ eyes fill with understanding once again, as a piece of her past was restored to her.
Perry’s phone rang.
“Hello, Richard,” he answered.
“Perry?” Richard said.
“Yeah?”
“Can you pick up some bottled water?” Richard asked. “I forgot to get some and we’re all out.”
“No problem,” said Perry and flipped his phone shut. Time for my personal Mapquest again. He felt a devilish glee at the thought. “Clark?”
“Yes?”
“Where’s the nearest place I can get some gas and some bottled water?”
Clark did that unfocused stare again. “If you turn here and go about a half mile, there’s a mini-mart in the gas station.”
“OK.” Perry angled his sedan around the corner. In the back, Clark and Lois had resumed their animated conversation. Lois was starting to talk with her hands again, making emphatic gestures to punctuate her statements.
“Do you remember that time at the dam?” Clark asked.
“Not really,” Lois said hesitantly.
“The dam?” Perry interjected. The only dam he knew nearby was Reeves Dam near Smallville.
“It was the day Lana died,” Clark said. “Lex had set up an experiment and he was hiding his genetically modified super-soldiers in the underlying dam structure.”
Dawning awareness in Lois’ eyes.
“I got involved, uh, under a weird set of circumstances,” Clark explained, “and Cat Grant, back when she was Lois Lane, had managed to track Lex there. And Lois, or Chloe as she was then, followed Cat. It was a good thing, because Cat had been stabbed…”
Perry saw Lois’ face turn to stone.
“Was that when the dam burst?” he asked curiously.
“Yep,” Clark agreed. “It’s a long story, but basically Lex had pulled in a Kryptonian lab construct from the Phantom Zone – you remember I told you about the Phantom Zone, Perry?”
“Extradimensional jail?”
“Uh-huh. And through another bizarre set of circumstances – “
“Are there any other kind around you?” Perry was only half-joking.
“Not really, no,” Clark said ruefully. “Anyway, this lab construct stole my DNA and became the anti-me – with my powers, but sort of opposite.”
“That must have been interesting,” Perry muttered. He noticed that Lois sat silently, the memory-restored look in full bloom.
“Uh, yeah,” Clark said. “I was fighting him – you’d never guess, Perry,” Clark said sarcastically, ‘that an escaped prisoner from the Phantom Zone might be a bad guy – “
“No, never,” Perry murmured.
Clark went on. “And anyway, in the battle, the dam ruptured.”
“I was in Smallville that day!” Perry exclaimed. “I saw the dam!” Suddenly the light dawned and he cast a suspicious eye at Clark. “It was you, wasn’t it?” he said as he’d said so many times before, now that he knew of Clark’s other identity. “You were the one who kept the dam breach from flooding the town!”
Clark looked uncomfortable. “Um, yes.” Perry’s implacable stare forced Clark to continue. “I was able to vaporize the water with my heat vision.”
“Aha!” Perry said. “Another mystery explained.” He smiled. “I thought I was going to my grave never knowing how that Reeves Dam breach could have been so weird. I mean, it was impossible!”
“Impossible is relative,” Clark murmured. Then, more loudly, he said, “I got Cat and Lois out of there – “
“Didn’t they see you?” Perry asked curiously. “I mean, doing something otherworldly?” He loved asking Clark these kinds of questions. It fed the reporter-beast within. Clark was astoundingly good about maintaining the separation between his two selves. But Perry realized that this episode must have happened before the advent of the Kryptonian public persona and wondered how Clark had explained away the impossible.
“Well, Cat didn’t see me use my abilities, and Lois….Lois was unconscious,” Clark finished awkwardly.
Perry darted a look at Lois. She stared straight ahead, not responding.
“The mini-mart is right here,” Clark said, quick to change the subject. Something about this topic had Lois spooked.
Perry pulled up to the gas pumps. Clark was quick to get out.
“You pump, Perry. I’ll get the water inside and pay,” he said. Before Perry could remonstrate with him, Clark had turned and was walking quickly to the mini-mart entrance.
Lois got out of the car, too. “Just want to stretch my legs,” she murmured. She still seemed preoccupied.
Perry filled his tank, replaced the hose and the gas tank cap. He saw Clark at the cashier’s, carrying a case of bottled water, and pulling out his wallet to pay. Perry had his passenger door open, as he leaned inside to get into the glove box to pull out his mileage diary. Years of habit had made Perry compulsive about recording destinations, mileages, and receipts. He’d done it even in his drinking days. (His handwriting was a lot more legible now.)
. What happened next was no one’s fault, really. Perry had put his diary back into the glove box. Lois didn’t see him. She came and slammed the door hard as she made her way back to her seat. Perry’s fingers were caught in the door.
The pain was so great that for a moment Perry couldn’t speak. Then he gave a strangled cry as he pulled his hand back, blood streaming down the fingers.
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry, Chief!” Lois fluttered around. “It was an accident!”
Perry still couldn’t speak. He cradled his injured right hand in his left, ignoring the blood seeping between his fingers. He was no expert, but it felt like his fingers were broken.
Clark came up, looking concerned, just as Lois grabbed Perry’s hands.
“We’ve got to get you a bandage – “ she began saying. Perry tried not to cry out as she jostled his fingers.
Clark set the water down on the car hood quickly. He had his glasses pulled down, staring at Perry’s hands, and he looked concerned. “They’re broken,” he murmured.
But Perry didn’t hear what Clark said, for at that moment, a strange glow arose from Lois’ hands surrounding his own. And an astounding feeling of warmth and well-being passed through Perry, starting at Lois’ hands, moving through his own hands, up his arms, traveling his body to his head and his toes. The pain disappeared. The glowing light winked out.
Lois collapsed.
Perry felt like collapsing too.
