Okay, this is really part 12, but since I posted part 9, 10, and 11 together, I guess this is Part 10
TOC Medical Miracles - Part 10 (or 12 if you prefer)
“Is he really leaving us like this?” Dr. Clark wondered as he stared at the door that Wells had just left through.
It was a little hard for him to believe – and he felt a bit abandoned. Had Wells really just stranded them there? How were they supposed to get home? What the heck was this Wells guy thinking leaving them alone with these people? Regardless of the fact that Lois and Clark seemed to be nice people – sort of like themselves – it didn’t make him feel the slightest bit secure in this strange, foreign universe. If he had been here alone, he probably wouldn’t feel so anxious. Since Lois and their unborn child were with him, however, it drastically changed is perspective.
Clark chuckled and then he said, “You really don’t know him that well, do you?”
Then he shrugged his shoulders. It seemed completely normal to him that Wells would do something like this.
Clark knew what Dr. Clark must be thinking. He was obviously skeptical of Wells’s motives. Obviously, Clark wasn’t even usually sure of what was going through that old man’s mind. However, he usually did have a method to his madness. And he was definitely right that he tended to get in the way. In the grand scheme of things, it was probably better that Mr. Wells had left.
Lois shook her head. “I think it’s better that he left. It got him out of our hair. Now we can get down to business.”
Now that Dr. Lois and Dr. Clark were here, Lois wanted to get straight to the business of the fertility treatment. It was a little disconcerting sitting in her living room talking to two people that looked exactly like herself and her husband. There was just something that seemed so wrong about it. The sooner they got to work on their problem, the better it would be to get her mind off the strange awkwardness of the situation. It felt strange, for lack of a better word – unreal, but it was actually happening.
Even though it was an awkward situation, both Lois and Clark had to admit that they were sort of glad to see Mr. Wells go. He seemed to get in the way more than anything else. Now they could explore their fertility problem without sharing the intimate details of their life with Wells – who actually seemed to know a lot more about them than anyone else.
Dr. Lois then joined the conversation, “For you, maybe. This is your home, your world. Clark and I are stranded here.”
Her heart began to flutter because of the thoughts that were flying through her mind. Were they really stranded? Could they trust Mr. Wells? How did they know that they could trust everyone here? They didn’t know anything about Mr. Wells or this universe. They had agreed to follow the strange little man on an impulsive whim. How could she be sure that they were safe? If it had just been herself and Clark on this trip, she wouldn’t have been concerned, but now that she was carrying this new life with her, she didn’t want to put it in danger.
However, she knew that they had made the right decision coming to this new world. They were correct in believing Wells before. He had actually been telling them the truth about the alternate universe with alternate versions of themselves. Why shouldn’t they trust him now? After all, this was definitely the best adventure she had ever had in her life.
Dr. Clark continued, “I mean it’s not like we don’t like your universe or anything…”
Dr. Lois raised her eyebrows at that comment. This universe was so much like their universe, but it wasn’t at the same time. She wasn’t sure if she was comfortable here. Even through all of the similarities, there were still so many obvious differences. The differences were a bit disconcerting. Things that seemed like they should be so familiar turned out to be completely foreign.
“But it is a little, I don’t know, too dark. Our world is so much more bright and shiny.”
“Too dark?” Lois wondered in a cautiously guarded voice.
She didn’t want to start an argument with their guests – again. They were sure to take whatever she said – however innocent – the wrong way. But her blood was boiling at that comment. Just one more thing and she would burst. She wouldn’t be liable for what she said.
Dr. Clark tried to smooth the situation over. Leave it to his wife to voice her opinion on everything. Normally, he loved it, but in this case, it wasn’t a good idea. She had to be careful not to offend their hosts. Even though they were there to help these people, he still felt like they had to be courteous to their hosts. After all, they were guests in this universe. Maybe it was his wholesome Kansas upbringing that Lois always teased him about, but he couldn’t help but be grateful to their hosts for allowing them to be guests in this lovely home. It wasn’t like they were doing this strictly out of the goodness of their hearts. They had agreed to help Lois and Clark because they knew the suffering they this version of themselves was experiencing, but they had chosen to travel to this universe for the pure sake of adventure.
“No, no,” he said. “Not too dark. Just different. I think my wife was just trying to illustrate the difference in the atmosphere in this universe.”
“Hmm,” was all Lois replied.
She, too, did not want to start another argument. After all, Dr. Lois and Dr. Clark were here to help them. It seemed like the only way that she could see to show her gratitude was to jump on their throats. What was it about Dr. Lois that really got on her nerves? Was it that they were so different that she couldn’t even see herself there? After all, Dr. Clark seemed a lot like her Clark. However, there were some differences. Dr. Clark seemed a lot more laid back than her husband. He seemed to go with the flow a lot more than Clark did. It was interesting to see two men that were so identical, yet so different. Maybe that is why the two Clarks seemed to get along. They had similar personalities, but there were just slight differences. She and this other Lois probably were having trouble getting along because of their obvious personality differences.
Now both couples lapsed into a period of silence, just staring at each other. After their initial squabble, they were all afraid of what to say so not to offend each other. Lois and Clark both knew that they hadn’t gotten off on the right foot with the Drs. Lois and Clark. They did not want to say anything that would jeopardize the chance that the Drs. Lois and Clark would be able to help them. After all, what would happen if they offended their guests so much that they decided that they just wanted to go home without sharing their vast medical knowledge?
Dr. Lois and Dr. Clark, too, were quite uncomfortable. Was this what it was going to be like? Did people always get awkward around their alternate personalities from alternate universes? They wondered just how many people had actually met different versions of themselves from alternate universes. The answer was obvious – it was probably just Dr. Lois, Dr. Clark, Lois, Clark, and the other version of themselves that Mr. Wells had told them about.
“So,” Dr. Clark broke the silence. Unfortunately, he had spoken without a real game plan. He was just completely uncomfortable with the tense silence that had overtaken the room.
After Dr. Clark spoke, the room lapsed back into silence. It was incredibly uncomfortable. Everyone in the room wanted someone to say something – anything!
They were all curious about the different paths in life that they had taken; how their differences arose in their career and life choices. The curiosity spanned from childhoods, to Superman, to the couples’ first meetings, to Dr. Lois’s pregnancy. However, no one knew how to broach any of the subjects – which would probably lead to arguments.
Lois, as always seemed to be the case, became the one to try to break the ice. She knew that she shouldn’t ask any of the burning questions that were flowing through her mind. Thus, she tried to start the conversation with a very innocent statement, “So, um, maybe we should all sit down.”
They weren’t getting anything accomplished just standing in the middle of the foyer staring at each other. Maybe if they got into a more comfortable position, the mood would lighten.
Clark, too, saw what Lois was trying to do. As they made their way towards the living room, he did his part as the good host by wondering, “Do you want anything to drink?”
Dr. Lois smiled at him and nodded. “I’d love a glass of water.”
Then Dr. Clark answered, “I’m fine, thank you.”
“Honey, could you get me a glass of wine?” Lois wondered. She knew that she needed some sort of sedative to relax her nerves.
“Sure. One glass of water and one glass of wine coming up. Are you sure you don’t want anything?” he wondered directing the question at Dr. Clark.
Dr. Clark shook his head slowly and made a motion with his hand signifying that he was fine.
When Clark went into the kitchen, Lois led the visitors into the living room and motioned to them to take a seat on the couch. When they had sat down, she proceeded to sit down on the chair next to the couch. Okay, now they were sitting down. Should she broach a conversation? Well, trying to talk was better than sitting in absolute silence. The tension in the air was so thick; it could be cut with a knife.
“So, how did you meet Mr. Wells?” she wondered. It was a safe enough question: non-threatening and about something they had in common. She was brilliant!
Dr. Clark shrugged his shoulders. “It was sort of weird, I guess. I was walking across the campus to meet Lois at the coffee house where we meet for lunch and I saw this strange old man that looked really out of place. So I went up to him and asked if he needed help. It was really weird that he seemed to be, well, looking for me of all people! It was a bit disconcerting.”
Clark, who had just come into the room and given Lois and Dr. Lois their drinks laughed at Dr. Clark’s statement. It brought back memories of the first time he had met Mr. Wells. He handed the drinks to their respective owners. Lois stood up and sort of motioned for him to sit down on the chair. After he sat down, Lois settled down on his lap and he wrapped his arms around her.
As he was sitting down, Clark interjected, “Well at least you met him on the street. He came all the way up into the newsroom to meet me!”
Dr. Clark shrugged his shoulders, but then he nodded. It sure would have been hard to explain if Mr. Wells had shown up in the middle of a class that he was teaching.
“True, but it was still really weird. I was really shocked to the core when he told me that he knew who I really was. When he told me that he knew that I was Superman, I wasn’t sure what I should do – if I should run away from him or if I should listen to him. For some reason, he didn’t seem too threatening, so I listened to him.”
Lois took that statement as her opportunity to have one of her questions answered. “So, you are Superman in your universe? The Clark from the other universe that I have visited hadn’t developed his Superman persona until I convinced him to do it.”
Dr. Lois jumped in to answer, not to be over-done by her reporter counterpart. “Well, I sort of take credit for helping Clark develop his Superhero alter ego.”
“That’s true, honey,” Dr. Clark said with a huge smile on his face. “She’s right. If she hadn’t convinced me to stop denying that I did want to use my powers to help others and that authorities were not going to capture me and ‘dissect me like a frog,’ I would still be hiding everything that I can do.”
Clark jumped in, “Did your father use that ‘dissect you like a frog’ thing?”
“Every day,” Dr. Clark said slowly. “It’s one of the reasons that I went into physiology. We decided that if I were the expert, I would be the one that they would call on to study myself if they ever found out about me. You know, it would sort of put me at an advantage over them.”
“Yeah, my dad used to tell me the same thing. But I don’t think he was as paranoid.”
Dr. Clark shrugged his shoulders again. “I don’t know if it’s really my dad that’s the paranoid one. I guess, deep down, my dad would support me whatever I chose to do with my life. I think above everything else, I have always suffered the strains of that deep-set paranoia about being an alien and what people would do to me if they ever found out.”
Dr. Lois interrupted, “Yeah, but then I figured it out.”
“You’re right, honey. You are the first person besides my parents that has ever found out that there was anything different about me.”
“And I didn’t want to dissect you like a frog – even though you know I could have.”
Dr. Clark smiled widely and said, “And I know you have threatened to do just that many, many times.”
Dr. Lois reached across and slapped his arm very lightly and started to laugh. “I have to admit, though, honey, you sure look cute when you’re threatened.” Her voice took on a more serious tone when she said, “You know I would never really do it, though, Clark, right?”
“Of course, Lois,” Dr. Clark said softly. “I can tell when you’re joking. You’re the one person I have ever really trusted completely.” Then he squeezed her hand and leaned in to place a soft kiss on her cheek.
As Lois and Clark watched the interaction between Dr. Lois and Dr. Clark, Lois felt herself feeling a small connection with their visitors. It seemed like Dr. Lois and Dr. Clark had the same strong relationship that she and Clark did. It was very interesting that both she and Dr. Lois had played a large role in creating Superman. Okay, she wasn’t the one who told Clark to do it, but she had come up with the name. In fact, Clark had often told her that she had given him the idea in the first place.
When Dr. Clark turned his attention away from his wife, he declared, “Because of Lois, I gained the courage to do what I have always wanted to do – help people in need.”
Clark found himself nodding along with Dr. Clark’s statement. After all, Lois had done almost the same thing for him. Before he came to Metropolis, he had always been a nomad, a drifter. As soon as it seemed like anyone was going to catch on to his differences, he moved on. That was until he met Lois Lane. The first time he set eyes on her, he knew that he wanted to stay near her for the rest of his life.
“And so we came up with the idea for Superman,” Lois finished.
“What about you, Clark,” Dr. Clark wondered.
Clark squeezed Lois’s hand and then he began, “I’m not really sure why I decided to come to Metropolis. I guess I had been traveling around the world for too long and I wanted a place to finally settle down. I guess I figured that in such a big place, no one would really notice me and I could be myself – helping people anonymously without anyone ever realizing what I was doing. I figured that if anyone ever figured it out, I would just move on like I had everywhere else.” He squeezed Lois’s hand. “But the second I set foot in the ‘Daily Planet’ newsroom, I knew that I had found a home. It just felt, I don’t know, right. Then, when Lois burst into my interview with Perry White, I knew I was in love.”
“Perry White?” Dr. Lois wondered.
Dr. Clark added, “He’s our department chairman.
Lois raised her eyebrows. For some reason, she couldn’t see him as anything else other than Editor and Chief of the ‘Daily Planet.’ She almost struggled more with seeing him as an engineer than either herself or Clark!
“He’s our editor,” Clark said. “It’s weird how our universes seem to be so similar yet so different.”
Lois shook her head. Some of the similarities were uncanny. However, the differences were profound.
Then Dr. Lois said, “Anyway, I interrupted. Please continue. How was Superman born?”
Clark grinned as he spoke, “Okay, as I said, during my interview with Perry, Lois burst in with a big story. I almost don’t even remember what she was talking about because I was so struck by her. When I saw her, I realized that I never wanted to leave Metropolis if it meant leaving her. To make a long story short, it took a lot of work, but eventually I got a job at the ‘Daily Planet.’ I was absolutely ecstatic that Mr. White partnered me with Lois on a huge story about the Messenger space craft. However, when we were investigating, I did several things that seemed – unusual. I was afraid that people – Lois – were beginning to get suspicious. I knew that I wanted to stay in Metropolis and I wanted to help people. But I was stumped. One day, though, after I had gotten dirty and practically ruined the clothes that I was wearing, Lois gave me the idea for Superman. She told me that I should bring a change of clothes to work – and that gave me the idea to create an alter ego.”
“Hmm,” was Dr. Lois’s response.
She was still struck by the idea that the alternate versions of herself and her husband were reporters of all things. It was even more shocking that Perry White, the world-renowned pioneer of biomedical engineering was the editor of the ‘Daily Planet!’
“Reporters,” she muttered shaking her head slightly.
Luckily, she didn’t say everything that was on her mind. The results definitely wouldn’t have been pretty.
“What do you mean - reporters?” Lois wondered in a very menacing voice, the skin bristling on the back of her neck.
Before anyone could respond, both Clark and Dr. Clark got the familiar far-off look in their eyes like they were hearing something. They both took on troubled looks as they heard the distant radio broadcast.
“What is it?” both Loises asked simultaneously.
Dr. Clark said, “Earthquake in Ecuador. It sounds like there’s a lot of damage.”
“Well go!” Lois stood up and pulled Clark out of the chair.
Clark stood up and quickly spun into his Superman suit.
Dr. Lois said, “Wow, you two do that the exact same way!” She was a bit surprised that Clark’s Superman suit looked identical to her husband’s. On second thought, though, she wondered what else she would have expected a “Superman suit” to look like.
Then Dr. Clark wondered before Clark could answer, “Do you want me to come with you? It sounds like you might need my help.”
The thought of having two Supermen in one place was an interesting concept. There always was the chance that someone would realize that there were two of them, but they both could move fast enough that it wouldn’t be a problem.
“Sure,” he said quickly and decisively. Then he added, “If you want to come.”
“Absolutely!”
Then Dr. Clark pulled something out of his pocket and spun around like Clark had just done. A second later, both Supermen were standing next to each other looking like mirror images.
“Are you two going to be okay here alone?” Clark wondered.
Lois rolled her eyes. “Of course we are, Clark. Do you really think Dr. Lois and I are children?”
Dr. Lois smiled sweetly at her husband and spoke before he could open his mouth. “Just go, honey. We’ll be fine.”
As the two Supermen flew out the window, they both had a feeling that Dr. Lois had spoken famous last words.
Before the two Loises had time to blink, the two Clarks had disappeared and were on their way to deal with the horrible disaster in Ecuador leaving the two Loises alone together. They were alone. With each other. The tension mounted by the nanosecond and within a second after the Clarks left, it became so thick it could almost be seen. Neither of them knew what to say to the other. They both felt like they had nothing in common with their counterpart and had nothing to talk about. Besides, from the second they learned about each other, both Loises knew that they probably wouldn’t like their alternate self. After their initial conversation, they were both sure that they had been correct with their initial judgment.
It was really uncomfortable. They were just sitting there staring at each other. Lois was sipping her wine more quickly than she normally would have. Okay, she was gulping her wine. Dr. Lois was swirling the water around her cup. Someone had to do something.
Dr. Lois wasn’t sure what to talk about with this woman that looked so much like her, yet was so different. Should she say something about her short haircut? After all, she had been thinking about cutting her hair for a while. However, Clark had convinced her that she looked better with long hair. Now that she saw herself with short hair, though, she wasn’t so sure Clark was right. Maybe she would look good with shorter hair. Oh that was great. She was here sitting with a woman that was her double and all she could think about was getting a hair cut.
Lois, on the other hand, was having slightly different thoughts. Maybe chugging an entire glass of wine had slightly lowered her inhibitions because she decided to make the first move. “So,” Lois began the conversation.
Right, that was a great way to start a conversation. However, she had no idea what to say to this woman. After all, Dr. Lois had obviously reacted poorly to her innocent question about dimensional travel during pregnancy, so pregnancy obviously wasn’t something good to talk about. Who knew what kind of faux pas she would make this time. Even though she was genuinely curious about these things, her questions would probably come off as accusations again.
“So,” Dr. Lois repeated.
Like Lois, she had no idea what to say to start a conversation with this woman. Maybe she should bring up the hair issue. After all, it was probably a good ice breaker.
Then Dr. Lois continued, “I really like your hair.”
Lois subconsciously reached up to touch her hair. “Oh, uh, thanks.” She hadn’t been expecting a compliment.
“I’ve always wanted to cut mine sort of like that, but Clark told me that he likes my hair long – although I don’t really think he would mind either way.”
Lois smiled at her counterpart. At least it seemed like she was trying to make an effort. However, it didn’t really excuse her for that “reporter” comment that she had made.
“Yeah,” Lois agreed, “I don’t think Clark really has a preference either way. He thinks I look beautiful no matter what my hair looks like.”
Dr. Lois shrugged her shoulders. “Yeah, I know what you mean. When we met, I had relatively short hair and he told me that he loved it. Then when I let it grow out, he liked that too. I keep telling him that he would like my hair even if I dyed it purple.”
Lois laughed despite herself. “You’re right. My Clark’s the same way. Actually, when we first met, my hair was almost as long as yours. Then when I cut it even shorter than it is now, he didn’t say a word about it. He just kept telling me how nice I looked. I’m actually not sure if he was trying to butter me up or if he actually likes my hair every way I cut it.”
Dr. Lois joined in the laughter. Then she tried to advance the conversation. “You know, our husbands seem to really have a lot in common.”
“Yeah they do. I mean, they even do the same spin move!”
This conversation seemed almost, well, amiable. Maybe they had more in common than they realized. They both had husbands that were head over heels in love with them. Maybe that was sort of a starting point.
Or maybe not.
Dr. Lois said, “Well, I guess the two Clarks do have a lot in common, but, to be completely honest, I really don’t think we do at all.”
