Ghost From the Past
Folc4evernaday
Part 1
Notes: So, this story has been in the works for a LONG time. I should warn you this is a long one and its got a lot of WHAM and there is talk about death but not of any main characters.
FDK appreciated as always.
The trailer for this one can be found
here. ***
<<Gunshots rang out as she watched Clark struggle in the water with the man she and Clark had come to know as Jason Trask. The echo of that final shot…
“Clark!!!!”
Two men in uniform pulled her back as she screamed in agony…>>
“Clark!” Lois shot up in bed, tears falling down her cheeks. She looked around the room, trying to gain her bearings. “Just a dream…” she mumbled swiping at the tears as she buried herself in her tear stained pillow.
It had been five years since that day in Smallville. Five years since she’d last seen Clark. Five years since she’d felt his lips against hers. Five years and she still wasn’t over it.
***
Six Years Ago…
Lois Lane looked up at the building in front of her and smiled. This was the beginning of everything. The beginning of her independence. The beginning of…
“Lois!” Ellen Lane’s voice interrupted her thoughts as she shoved a box in her arms. “Come on, we’ve only got the truck for a few more hours. Let’s get you unpacked.”
Lois smiled wryly at her mother, “I’m going. I’m going…” Here she was in her last year at Metropolis University and moving into her own apartment.
“Isn’t this exciting, sis?” Lucy asked as she followed her up the stairs with an armful of boxes. “Independence….excitement….” she glanced at a tall gentleman that passed them in the hallway, “boys…”
“I don’t have time for that and you know it…” Lois said exasperated, “It’s my last year at Metropolis University…I just want to finish my degree and start my career at…”
“The Daily Planet…” Lucy cut her off. “I know, I know…Its still exciting, though…”
“This is me…” Lois said, stopping in front of her door, “501,”
***
Clark stepped off the bus and looked around the campus. After dreaming about leaving Smallville for so long he’d finally taken the plunge and transferred to a large University. His parents had been hesitant about the move at first, but when he’d shown them the full scholarship Metropolis University had offered him there wasn’t much of an argument there.
He looked around the streets of Metropolis and smiled. This was the first day of the rest of his life. He looked up at the large university and couldn’t seem to wipe the smile off his face. He’d dreamt of this for so long. Now, here it was. His chance at a life outside of Smallville.
“Whoah! Sorry!” a young brunette bumped into him as she dropped the handful of textbooks in her hand.
“Uh, sorry…” He knelt down to help her. She had the most gorgeous brown eyes he’d ever seen.
“It's okay…Typical for me….barreling in without looking where I’m going…” the young woman said shyly. All he could manage to do was just stare at her and smile. She was gorgeous. ‘Uh, hi, Lois Lane,” she extended her hand to shake his.
He took her hand and smiled back, “Clark Kent,”
***
Present Day…
The room was filled with a green glow. Glass was shattered all over and the leather binds on the table were torn. Several soldiers were surveying the scene. Everything had been destroyed. All of their work….
Jason Trask stepped into the room and glared at the two soldiers that stood by the lead box that held the mysterious green glow.
“Where is the alien?” Trask asked.
“He’s escaped…”
“Find him…” Trask ordered.
***
Lois pushed her way through the doors of the Daily Planet, ignoring everyone around her as she headed towards the elevators. She jabbed at the elevator call button and stepped on the elevator, waiting impatiently to arrive in the newsroom. After last night’s dream, all she wanted to do was lose herself in a good scandal. Thinking about Clark and everything she’d lost was too painful.
As she exited the elevator she noticed the newsroom was quiet. Everyone was huddled around the television as the footage of a meteor as the other screen showed a group of military officers and scientists in front of City Hall. “What in the world?”
“'Nightfall' is close to seventeen miles across. It's traveling close to 30-thousand miles an hour. this could knock the Earth off its axis. Even throw us out of our current solar orbit. It's far larger than the meteor that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. The crater alone will throw enough dust into the air to start a new ice age. With something this size, there is no military option. We're looking into modifying a rocket but, at best, it would be a fifty-fifty proposition.”
***
Martha stared sadly at the empty room before her. It had been five years but she just couldn’t let go. She couldn’t accept that the little boy she and Jonathan had raised and watched grow up with his special ‘gifts’ was gone.
“Martha?” Jonathan’s voice broke her out of her reverie. “Martha, you can’t keep doing this to yourself….”
“I know….” She cried. “I just can’t seem to let go….I had another dream last night…Jonathan, I just can’t seem to shake the feeling that our boy is out there somewhere….”
“If Clark were alive he would have come home…” Jonathan argued. “Please, honey, I can’t stand to see you like this….”
“It’s been five years today…” Martha shook her head.
“I know…” the shakiness of his voice was evident as he tried valiantly to be the rock Martha so desperately needed right now. “I miss him too…”
“He was our miracle…” Martha cried. “I want to try and look again…”
Jonathan shook his head, “No, we have gone through that city from top to bottom and found nothing…No good can come of it. Now, Clark died ….”
“But what if he didn’t….With all his gifts why would you think he would ….”
Jonathan sighed, “Martha, I’m not going through this again…”
A stern look crossed her face as she turned away, “I’m going to Metropolis whether you like it or not. You’re either coming with me or not but you’re not going to stop me…My boy is missing...”
Jonathan hung his head, "Martha, it's been five years..."
"Jonathan, my boy is going to come home....one way or another I am going to find him and bring him home....dead or alive."
***
The pain he'd felt earlier seemed to have subsided. The streets he was walking seemed so familiar. The beautiful town seemed darker...
He looked up and watched as a large shadow passed in front of the sun. He wasn't sure of a lot of things but he was pretty sure that this was not normal.
***
“Lois Lane,” Lois answered her phone through the frenzy of activity that had taken over the newsroom after the announcement on Nightfall.
“Lois?” a familiar voice asked on the other end.
“Martha?” Lois asked in a hushed whisper. She looked around to see if anyone was watching or listening then turned back to the phone, “It's been…ages…”
“I know…” Martha gave a watery smile through the phone, “I wanted to take another look at Clark’s apartment…Do you still have the key?”
“Ye…Yes…Yes, I do…” Lois said shakily, resting her head in her hands as she spoke. The key. The key to her dead fiancé’s apartment. She went through this every year. It killed her every time.
“Good…” she said, “We’ll be coming in on the first flight in the morning…Can you meet us over there?”
“Sure…” Lois said softly.
“Great. See you then…” A resounding click was heard on the other end of the phone. It was hard to imagine this was the same woman she’d met so many years ago. They all had changed.
<< Lois and Clark walked hand in hand as she surveyed the small-town festival. They approached a middle-aged woman and Clark tapped her on the shoulder to get her attention. She turned around and smiled, giving Clark a big hug.
“Mom, this is …Lois,” Clark said with a grin, wrapping a protective arm around her from behind.
“Hi,” Lois said shyly. “It’s nice to meet you, Mrs. Kent,” she held out her hand for the woman to shake.
“Martha, please,” she corrected.
“Martha,” Lois echoed.
“Clark tells me you’re a journalism major as well?” Martha said, trying to break the ice.
Relieved to be talking about something comfortable, Lois nodded, “Yes, senior year. I’m hoping to be working at the Planet next year when I graduate.”
“Daily Planet, huh?” Martha grinned, “Well, I’m sure if you work hard enough anything is possible.” She cast Clark a grin, “Shoot for the moon I always say. Come on, you kids must be starving…”
Clark gave a wink then interrupted, “Actually, Mom, Lois thinks the chef might be a cross-dresser…”
Lois rolled her eyes and twisted her mouth as she glanced at the middle-aged man flipping burgers. Martha laughed, “Oh, honey, that’s Clark’s father! I can’t get him to buy me a dress let alone one for himself…”>>
Lois stared at the picture on her desk as she hung up the phone, “Oh, Clark…”
***
He brushed his hands against the cast iron railing as he stepped up the stairs It almost felt like there was something drawing him to this place…a presence.
***
Martha turned back to Jonathan and sighed, “I know he’s ALIVE. I can feel it in here…”
Jonathan sighed, following her out to the barn, “You keep doing this to yourself and dragging poor Lois into this depression with you every year. How is she supposed to move on with her life when you keep doing this to her?”
“Move on with her life?” Martha scoffed. “What makes you think she WANTS to move on with her life after what happened?”
“Martha….”
A loud bang was heard in the stalls and Martha jumped, “What was that?”
***
TBC...
