Description: Lois has been waiting since she was nineteen to meet a certain, super-special someone. Sequel to
Vision of Destiny and part 2 in the Destiny series.
Acknowledgements and Comments: This takes place in the Pilot episode. As the story is written completely from Lois' point of view you will not see any scenes that she was not in. There are also scenes that she
was in that I have cut out as they have no significant changes or bearing on the story, and I'm pretty sure that most readers know this episode like the back of their hand. Thanks, as always, go to my beta readers, KenJ and Morgana. They are awesome. They have the final 2 chapters ... and even though I'm not 100% happy with them, I'm sure I will be by the time it comes to post, with their help.
While this is a sequel to Vision of Destiny you don’t have to read that first, in fact this idea was for
this story to be written first, originally, and then Vision of Destiny to explain in detail what had happened to Lois. If you haven’t read Vision you may find yourself especially curious about what happened to Lois, though.
Disclaimer: Superman, Clark Kent, Lois Lane and all other character and place names are owned by DC and/or Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. I own nothing ... except my fantasies -- which frequently include Clark/Superman.
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Chapter 1 TOC"Chief, I think there's a story here and we should have this guy checked out, you know, the crazy one from this morning." Lois began speaking the moment she burst into the office. Out of the corner of her eye she saw movement, but she continued to talk to Perry. "He was an engineer at EPRAD-"
"Hey, Lois, can't you see I'm in the middle of something here?" Perry interrupted her.
"Oh." She glanced around, very slightly embarrassed.
Perry sighed. "Lois Lane." He pointed to her and then across his desk. "Clark Kent."
"Nice to meet you," she replied, automatically. "Anyway he worked on the Messenger," she babbled, then her mind processed Perry's words. Clark Kent. She looked up and saw the hand tentatively held out towards her. All the world drifted away and in that second her black and white world became colour. After ceasing beating for a moment her heart resumed its rhythm, but at twice it's natural speed.
"Wait, wait, wait, wait a minute. What happened to that mood piece I gave you about the raising of that old theatre on 42nd Street." Perry gestured slowly with his hands, painting a picture of the kind of article he was hoping for.
"I ..." Lois couldn't form a thought. All she could do was stare at the man across from her. She couldn't even order her arm to move so that she could return his handshake. He was wearing a soft brown jacket and white shirt. The yellow, blue and white geometric tie was actually quite subtle. For some reason she'd expected something more … wild.
"Don't tell me." Perry spoke into the silence. "You weren't in the mood?" Her mouth moved, trying to say something. To agree with Perry's assessment of the story. To say 'Hi' to Clark. To smile at him. Anything. But instead she worried that she just looked like a goldfish in a bowl. "Now look, Lois." A knocking at the glass window drew her interest. She turned slowly to see Jimmy gesticulating at her. "You can't come in here and tell me you-"
"Jimmy." She spoke slowly, staring straight at Jimmy but not moving, the presence of the man to her right still overwhelming her. Jimmy continued to gesticulate and Perry turned away from her to look behind and see what had caught her eye. When Jimmy replayed his 'phone' gesticulation and then added a 'tapping on his watch' she finally broke out of her shock and blinked frantically. "I gotta go. I'll catch you later."
As she headed for her desk, her mind couldn't help returning to the man about to be accepted into the Daily Planet family. Her heart continued to beat at double speed. Sitting down she reached for the phone but swivelled her chair so that she could see back into the office. Her hand waivered, trying to find the phone, but missing it. She had to glance back momentarily so that it connected with the receiver. Picking it up she looked back again, a smile coming to her face. He was here. Clark Kent was here. She brought the receiver up to her ear slowly as she watched Clark hold out his hand again. Perry took it and they shook. Her smile turned into a grin and she wrenched her eyes away. Tuning in to the phone at that moment she realised that whoever it was had given up waiting for her. The dial tone played in her ear.
She shrugged. Losing whatever source that had been was of little consequence now. Nothing could dampen her day. Clark Kent had finally arrived in her life. She'd been waiting for him for nearly a decade. Well, about seven years, actually. Looking back to the Editor's office she saw the door open and watched as Clark exited. Her happiness dissipated as she saw the dejected look on his face. She could read his expressions like a book and at the moment he looked crushed. She frowned and stood. Her first impulse was to go to him. To put her arms around him and comfort him, just like always. But he didn't know her. And, technically, she didn't know him either.
She watched as he walked across the newsroom floor then entered the elevator. Her mouth was open in shock. She turned, took five strides, then wrenched open the door to Perry's office.
"You didn't hire him?" she challenged.
Perry turned around and settled a disapproving, fatherly look on his face. "What does it say on my door?"
"Um, Editor," she squeaked out, suddenly feeling chastised.
"Exactly. And, no, I didn't hire Mr. Kent. He had no experience."
"He didn't?" She frowned, feeling her eyebrows crinkle. That didn't match her memory. But, then again, they weren't really her memories, and they were fuzzy … incomplete. Possibly she'd made some presumptions along the years when she tried to fill in those blank areas. "But he's been all over the world," she queried. That fact, she was sure of.
"And?" He raised his eyebrows.
"Well. He's …" Lois couldn't bring anything to mind to help in her advocacy of Clark.
"He's what, Lois?" Perry tilted his head in question, but she heard the condescending tone. "And how do you even know him?"
"I …" she gulped and crossed her arms defensively. "I don't."
"Okay, then. Thank you for your input," he continued in the same tone. "Now, would you be so kind as to bring me a story I can use for the morning edition?"
She uncrossed her arms, straightened her skirt, then turned and exited the office.
Back at her desk she sank into her chair and turned to her computer screen. Staring at the half complete story she hovered her fingers over the keyboard but then froze.
He wasn't hired.
How could he have not been hired?
The shock of seeing her future husband, and then losing him, disrupted her thoughts for the rest of the day. She couldn't write a coherent sentence, formulate a single theory or confirm any fact with sources. Nothing went correctly for the remainder of the afternoon. Nothing felt right. Nothing
was right.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
At home, later that night, she sat in bed and considered the ironic and prophetic conversation she'd had with her sister when she returned from work.
"I just want you to meet a super guy." Lois closed her eyes and rested back against the head board. "You have no idea, Lucy," she murmured to herself, wistfully. "I met him today, you know?" she imagined telling Lucy. "And he really is Super."
She opened her eyes again and looked at the TV, still playing her favourite programme. She was no longer watching, though. The romance that she longed for would no longer be satisfied by
The Ivory Tower now that Clark had arrived in her life. Reaching for the remote control she switched it off.
"But I expected him to get a job with me, and he didn't." She folded her arms in a huff at the universe. Her destiny had arrived, but then been ripped from her. Why didn't he get the job? This unexpected turn of events set her re-thinking through everything she knew about Clark Kent, and what she might possibly have embellished or presumed over the years. His employment at the Daily Planet was the first thing she considered. She'd always presumed that when he appeared, then the rest of her life would begin. But what if he went to another paper to get experience? What if it was years before he came back to the Daily Planet?
She closed her eyes, reached for the light and plunged the room into darkness.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Smooth." Jimmy nodded.
"Um, yeah if you like that sort of thing." Standing in Perry's office towards the end of the next day Lois valiantly held back tears. Clark's article about the theatre was moving, and could easily have elicited the tears all by itself, but the real reason for her having to hide her emotions was the chance that he was about to be offered a job this time. From today he could be in her life. Day after day.
And then she'd have to pretend she didn't know who he was. Pretend that he meant nothing to her. Pretend that she wasn't crazily in love with him. Pretend that she hadn't been waiting for him since she was nineteen.
She brushed away the lonesome tear, which had managed to escape, as Perry offered his hand to Clark again.
"You know Kent, there's only one attribute I value more than experience and that's initiative. Clark Kent, welcome to the Daily Planet. Whoops."
Perry extracted his hand before Clark could really shake it. An odd thing for him to do, but she didn't care. Her heart leapt. He was here. Clark Kent was a reporter for the Daily Planet, and she was going to get to know him.
She wanted to be with Clark so badly. Nearly eight years knowing he was coming, knowing what it would be like to be with him, to be loved by him. But no matter how badly she wanted it, the possibility of destroying that future was much worse. Anything she did that was different, that wasn't how she would have
normally acted, could skew her life into a different future, a different destiny, and she dare not risk that.
Despair had haunted her dreams last night, when she'd realised that everything she'd believed to be secure about her future, was actually completely fragile. In fact, they'd been more 'nightmares' than dream. The possibility that the man she'd been waiting for, been in love with, since her teenage years, was actually not real. He was just a fleeting acquaintance. The perfect marriage she'd been looking forward to was a fantasy. A black emptiness had followed her through the night.
What if everything she remembered, everything she knew about Clark was wrong? What if he wasn't the man she'd fallen in love with over the years?
The future she'd been working towards, looking forward to, aiming for, was a lie.
She'd awakened this morning full of despair and grieving for that lost life.
But now, hope had returned. Clark was here. Only one day later and he'd secured his place at the Daily Planet, his place in her life. And all her dreams came back to life.
Still, the nightmares of last night were a warning. If she didn't play this right … then she'd lose him. The only guarantee she had, was to act as she always did. Live the life that would have been 'Mad Dog Lane' if she didn't have this knowledge. She was going to have to do a lot of thinking in the days to come. She'd have to work out how she should behave around Clark. How she would feel about him, if he really were a stranger to her.
And that wasn't going to come easy. She'd known him, in her mind, in her memories, since she was nineteen. And she loved him.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Comments, as always, gratefully received. I aim to post once a week on a Saturday or Sunday. If I forget ... please give me a nudge.
