Missing Lois (aka: Season Five)
TOC Written by: Virginia R.
Disclaimer: Inspired by the characters created by Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster and portrayed on the
Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman television series, developed by Deborah Joy-LeVine. This story starts out with a scene written by Eugenie Ross-Leming and Brad Buckner in the Season Three finale episode
Big Girls Don’t Fly . Many thanks for the above-referenced writers for their inspiration. The plot of the story is entirely my own.
Author’s Note: This mostly romance storyline takes place concurrently with the entire fourth season, explains who the baby is, where it came from, what happens after the season 4 finale, as well as the alternate dimension's Clark's search and discovery his Lois.
I would rate most of the installments TV-13, due to adult subject matter and some violence; although no major characters die, some do get injured from time to time.
Since my story is so long (10 parts, approx. 50K words each), I’d love any feedback regarding superfluous scenes, whether I should break it into smaller installments, and make sure it stays within or below the TV-13 rating.
As I mentioned above in my disclaimer, the story starts out with a scene lifted directly from Season Three, I find it flows better with the scene included, but if this violates LCMB rules, please let me know and I’ll remove it.
This is the first time I have posted a story to the message boards and I apologize for any errors made while posting these first few installments.
Edit: I have now talleyed up the number of total parts in my story. It is 109 (including the Epilogue). 4 Parts is for this Chapter only.
Many thanks to LabRat for her kind advice.
This story begins shortly before Clark / Superman / Kal-El leaves with Zara and Ching for New Krypton.
***
CHAPTER ONE: Bye-Bye Baby, Good-Bye (1/4)
Lois wandered around her apartment, slowly picking up items to add to a box for Clark. Her damp eyes were not focused on the task on hand, but away in the past where their lives were supposed to have been joined. A knock at the door, brought her back to the present. Carrying Clark’s brown v-neck sweater with her, she tried in vain to wipe the dampness from her eyes before opening the door.
“Hi,” Lois said, letting Clark inside.
“Hi.” He enclosed Lois into his arms. This was it; their final good-bye.
Lois pulled away from the hug and attempted to fold the sweater, again.
Don’t show Clark your how much you’ve been crying, she thought to herself. Be strong for him.
Out loud, she started to babble. “Your sweater. You lent it to me that time we flew to Bangkok for Thai noodles. I thought you might need it.” She placed the sweater into the box. “Who knows what the weather’s going to be like on New Krypton. It might be… a…” She realized she was rambling again. “I don’t know what to do here. I could pack some cookies or… uh… darn some socks… uh… I can’t even write you.”
“I don’t know if I can do this,” murmured Clark.
“You can.” Lois’s sniffles told him she wished it were otherwise.
“What I want to do is take you in my arms and fly away.”
“From what? Yourself? Your destiny?” She wanted the same things he did, but knew it was too late. He had already made his choice. “I will be here waiting for you, Clark.”
The pain in Clark’s eyes stabbed her soul. He had always hated leaving her alone. Unprotected. At all. So, she must be the strong one this time.
“And if you can return, you will,” Lois continued with all the strength she could muster.
“You have so much faith in me.”
“Oh. Well, that’s all I have. I think that’s what keeping me standing here. ‘Cause when I let myself imagine a tomorrow without you I start to shake.” Her lips start to tremble with these words.
“Lois, if there was any way I could take you with me, I would.” He meant that, she could see it in his eyes.
“I know.” Lois caressed his face. “I know.” How was she going to live without seeing those brown eyes every day. How had she ever described them as muddy? Glancing over his shoulder, she saw the little square jeweler’s box she had put on the coffee table. “Oh!” She had almost forgotten. She picked it up and opened it. “I never got a chance to wear my wedding ring.” She took the ring out of the box. It hung on a silver chain. She set down the box and returned to Clark. “I was hoping you could keep it for me.” She placed the chain around his neck.
She could see that her gift left him speechless. Finally, he found words. “I will keep this as safe as I keep my love for you. Lois, I have loved you from the beginning…”
She smiled; he has said that to her a thousand times. “And I’ll love you ‘til the end.”
“In my heart, I am your husband.”
“And I’m your wife.”
“Always.”
They stared at each other. What more could be said? All that was left was good-bye and neither wanted to speak those words.
Lois glanced over at the window. “So…” They moved to look up at the night’s sky. “Which star is yours?”
“I don’t know if you can see it.” He pointed up at the brightest star in the sky. “There.”
“I see it. I’ll watch it every night,” she promised, turning to him. He was only inches away and she could not resist any longer. Neither could he. Clark dropped the curtain and they embraced. Slowly, their kisses brought them to the floor.
***
Yet, it was not on the floor, but on the bed, that they found themselves as dawn approached. Lois snuggled up against his bare chest for one last cuddle. She knew that when the dawn’s light arrived, he should not be there. She took a deep breath and said what she had been dreading since the night before.
“Clark.”
“Hmmm.”
“It’s almost dawn.”
“I know.” He ran his fingers through her hair. “I need to go.”
“Clark.” She sat up straighter and placed both hands on his chest. “You need to forget this night.”
“What?!” Clark was clearly stunned. “I can never…”
“Understand me, Clark. This never happened. Do not think about it even for an instant, especially when you miss me the most; when you are at your weakest. You cannot.” Lois’s voice shook with the words, but she knew she must continue. She must convince him. “The New Kryptonians can read minds…”
Clark blanched, realizing where she was headed. “I’ll encase my thoughts in steel…”
“No.” Lois interrupted him. “They are much better at reading thoughts than you are at locking yours up, Clark. If you were to think about us…” She indicated the bed. “Here. Even for one moment. All could be lost. You must forget everything that happened last night.”
Clark stepped out of the bed, wearing only her ring on a chain around his neck and boxers. Instantly, he spun himself into clothes. He picked up his glasses from the night stand and put them on. Leaning down, he kissed her once more. “I’ll hurry back, wife, now that I know what I’m missing.”
“You don’t know, anything!” Lois glared at him and pounded her fists on the bedspread. Then a smile appeared on her lips as she realized he was teasing her. Two could play at that game. Her smile turned demure. “Remember, husband, we our saving ourselves for our official marriage night.”
“I cannot forget you, Lois.”
“You better not!” She socked him in the arm.
He pulled her into another kiss. “Can I remember kissing you?” he whispered.
“Uh-huh,” she murmured, melting as he kissed down her neck. She pushed him away. “Clark!”
He grinned sheepishly. “Sorry, it might be easier to forget if you weren’t so…”
She glanced down to her silky camisole top and grabbed her robe off the end of the bed. “It shouldn’t matter, you can…” she mimicked him pulling down his glasses and x-raying something. “… anyway.”
“I’ll be good.” He smiled.
Lois stepped into her robe and slippers and then wrapped her arms around him again. “That’s what I like about you, Clark. I know I can trust you.”
He whispered in her ear, “I’d die… a virgin… before ever breaking that trust, Lois.”
His hot breath tickled down her spine and she needed to take a step back. She took both his hands and in hers. She bit her lip as it started shaking again. “Come back to me, Clark.”
Clark placed one last kiss upon her lips. “Always, Lois.” Then he was gone.
***
The days dripped by in Metropolis. The sunny blue skies and chirping birds of summer felt like the gloomiest of winters for Lois. She knew life was tough for Clark on the New Krypton ship, learning all their customs and being far from home surrounded by strangers.
Back at the
Planet , Lois felt like she was the one on a different planet. She not only had to do her job – top investigative reporter – but to keep up Superman’s missing alias, she had to do Clark’s job as well. So, during the day she did her stories and, at night, she researched and wrote his. She knew Clark could only be gone so long before Perry would start to wonder where he actually went, if he had actually disappeared off the face of the earth. Being deep undercover with Intergang, Perry would still expect him to turn in a story once in a while.
It was difficult writing as Clark Kent. She would put on one of his shirts and smell his essence and try to capture his upbeat, positive humanity and prose. More often than not, Lois would end up crying herself to sleep on her laptop.
At first, Perry hadn’t bought it. She had explained to him that Clark was still adjusting to undercover work and missing both her and Superman. Finding stories for her to write as Clark Kent, unfortunately became easier as Intergang grew and became bolder with every day. Luckily, Perry gave Clark some slack and her faking his style got better. She hoped that Clark wouldn’t mind so much when he got back.
Lois’s emotions were all over the map. She missed Clark with every fiber of her being, but she had to tell pretend conversations with him to Jimmy and Perry. She was completely drained from doing two jobs with no emotional support and no one in whom she could confide. She did speak with Martha at least once a week, but she felt like she was bringing the upbeat woman down every time she did. Everyone at the
Daily Planet missed Clark and it took weeks, before they stopped asking if she had heard from him on a daily basis. All the while, the world was mourning Superman.
Lois pulled herself out of bed. Another night of tossing and turning, of searching for Clark in her dreams. The circles under her eyes were becoming too dark. People were beginning to notice. She added an extra layer of consealer, but she felt like it didn’t help.
Lois put toothpaste on her toothbrush with dread. Please, do not let it happen again. How could cleaning her teeth upset her stomach so much. Please, let her go to work with fresh breath for once.
She had changed toothpaste three times.
She had changed toothbrushes twice.
She had cut out acidic foods.
She had cut out fried foods.
Even cut out pastrami sandwiches and coffee from her diet, but nothing helped. Something about the act of brushing her teeth made her gag every morning and every night. Her body was rebelling against her.
She put the brush in her mouth and started scrubbing. It was ok. She was going to make it today. Yes, today would be the day. Then the world turned sideways and Lois’s head was over the toilet again. Damn. She wiped the throw up off her face.
She rinsed out her mouth and went to eat her breakfast of yogurt and bananas. It was the only food that didn’t upset her tummy. She had even told Perry that she was eating bananas and yogurt as a way to lose weight before her next wedding to Clark. At least, she wasn’t gaining a hundred pounds on her usual chocolate ice cream depression feast. Strangely, she hadn’t been interested in chocolate after the first week Clark left.
Lois ducked past Star’s apartment. She missed her friend, but the woman was just too in tune with the universe. Last time they talked, she asked when Clark had gone off planet. Lois didn’t have the answer for that one.
She got to the
Daily Planet with less than a minute to spare before the morning meeting. Perry and Jimmy were heading out on another fishing trip that weekend and she wanted to avoid an extra assignment. Maybe, she could get some rest for a change. She had even told Perry that she thought Clark might be able to sneak away for a night.
Sitting at the conference table, she thought for moment about her last night with Clark. A sigh escaped her lips. Her eyelids were heavy with sleep when something Perry mentioned sent bells off in her head and a chill down her spine.
“Could you repeat that, Perry?” she asked, suddenly fully awake. She realized she was no longer at the conference table, but at her desk. When had the meeting ended? How did she get back to her desk?
“I said that the new teenage pregnancy rates came out this morning and it looks like Metropolis went up another three percentage points in the last year. The so-called experts want to put it down as a post-Superman blip, which is just horse hooey, if I ever heard it.”
“I agree, Perry. He…” Lois tried not to use the “S” name whenever possible. “He has been gone for months. It doesn’t explain why there would suddenly be a boost in teenage motherhood. Unless they think fear of the future without… without Superman would cause teenagers to suddenly stop using contraception. That’s ridiculous. Pregnancy still takes nine months, doesn’t it? These so-called experts aren’t suggesting that Superman, himself impregnated…” She couldn’t finish that sentence. What in the world was she saying?
“Faster than a speeding bullet, Lois.” Ralph hooted, shooting with both hands as pistols.
Lois stood up and pointed at Ralph. “Take that back. Superman has been gone a few short months and you already are turning him into a joke. He’s not a joke. He has saved your life and countless other lives, over and over, without ever asking for anything in return.”
Ralph held up his hands. “Sorry.”
Jimmy leaned over the partition between the desks and whispered, “I know it feels like forever, Lois. But I don’t think Superman’s been gone months. Clark went undercover about the same time; how long has he been gone?”
Lois glanced down at the date on her agenda. “Thirty-four days.” She sighed. “Three hours.” She counted from the moment her left her apartment that last night. Wait a minute. Thirty-four days? One month? Almost five weeks? “That can’t be right. Has it been that …?” She flipped through her agenda.
“Excellent, Lois, you take the pregnancy thing…” Perry said, continuing on to another topic, but Lois’s mind was stuck on what he had said.
Pregnancy? No. No. No. No. No.
“Great shades of Elvis, Lois, you look like you swallowed a junebug. Are you all right?” Perry said, causing the entire room to look at her. She looked up at Perry.
“What? Huh?”
“Jimmy, help me take Lois into the conference room to lie down.”
“Right, Chief,” Jimmy took Lois’s arm and she stumbled into the conference room with his help.
Perry looked around the bullpen. “Back to work!” He shut the door.
“Lois, you fell asleep at the morning meeting. That isn’t like you. Are you feeling okay? I know I shouldn’t come between a woman and her food, but, honey, you’ve got to eat something more than yogurt and bananas. Clark loves you just the way you are.”
Clark. Clark. Clark. His name echoed in her head. Gone. Gone. Gone.
“Jimmy, get Lois a cup of water.” Perry lowered his voice. “When she snaps out of it take her home, will you? She’s finally cracked.”
Lois’s head tilted to the side. Why did Perry think she had cracked? And why did she keep hearing Clark’s name echoing through her head.
“Clark. Clark. Clark. Clark.” Lois realized at that moment, it wasn’t an echo. She was saying his name over and over.
“See if you can reach him on his beeper,” Perry continued to Jimmy.
“No!” Lois gasped, pulling herself together. She grabbed the cup from Jimmy and swallowed a gulp of water. “It wouldn’t do any good.” She reached into her attaché case and brought out Clark’s beeper. “I’ve got it.” She forced her lips into a smile. “Deep undercover, remember?”
Perry knelt down beside her. “Lois, you said that Clark arranged a night off with you this weekend. That isn’t true, is it?”
Lois shook her head.
“When’s the last time you heard from him?”
“It’s been a while,” she admitted.
Perry patted her on the back. “I’m sure he’s fine. He’s a great reporter and knows what he’s doing. Go home. Take the weekend off. Get some sleep, Lois. I’m sure he’ll call you this weekend.”
She nodded feebly. She could just hear the conversation in her head.
“Hi, honey. I’ve arrived on New Krypton with my wife, Zara. It’s pretty barren here. How’s Earth? Miss me?” “Hi, Clark. Guess what? Remember that night I told you to forget. Well, I’m pregnant.” “Faster than a speeding bullet, Lois.” “Tell me about it,” Lois mumbled, pulling her head off the table. When did she put her head on the table?
Jimmy, who was pulling her to her feet, asked. “Tell you about what?”
Perry was calling out the conference room door. “Ralph, you’re up on the teenage pregnancy story.”
Lois shook her head. Those poor teenage mothers.
***
“I’ll be all right, Jimmy. Perry’s right, I just need to sleep. Clark would hate for you to miss your fishing trip on my account.”
“Lois, Clark would have me cancel my own birthday if he thought you needed help.”
“He would, wouldn’t he?” Lois sighed with a smile. “But I wouldn’t, so go on your trip. Have a great time. I’ll be fine.”
“Are you sure you don’t want me to call someone for you? Your mother, perhaps?”
“My mother?!” A shiver ran down Lois’s spine. “Heavens, no. I’ll be fine, Jimmy. And thank you.” She shut the door behind him with another shiver. “Mother.”
Lois walked into her bedroom and opened her closet. Sitting in the back of the closet, were the bags she had packed for her honeymoon, all those months ago when she was supposed to marry Clark during the clone incident. She hadn’t touched them. A part of her kept hope alive that she might need to leave on that honeymoon on a moment’s notice.
She took a deep breath and pulled out the largest suitcase, plopping it on the bed. She ran her fingers over the flower print pattern and with a heavy sigh, she opened the suitcase. She pulled the inside zipper on the top flap open and felt inside, removing a rectangular white and blue box. She sat down on the bed and stared at the box.
Lois remembered buying the box and the reason behind it. With all his super human strength, she had wondered if Clark’s little swimming buddies might have no problem what-so-ever busting straight through the thin skin of a condom. It wasn’t something she and Clark had discussed in particular. She knew he wanted children. And nothing would thrill her more, she realized, to have a part of him growing inside of her. Motherhood was a completely different story and she detoured away from any thought of it.
As it turned out, on that night in particular, they hadn’t thought to stop and use contraception. With clones and the amnesia and all, she had completely fallen off her birth control regimen.
That night they hadn’t thought about anything except needing to be together. Partly to prove to each other that they actually were husband and wife even without the paperwork. Partly to say good-bye.
Ok, she admitted to herself and would never repeat it aloud, that there had been a little thumbing her nose at Zara and the New Kryptonians on her part. Clark was hers and she was going to have him first. She shuddered. And last. And, hope beyond hope, all the days in between.
Well, she sighed, standing up. This was the moment. She was a journalist. She needed the cold hard proof that what she already knew in her gut to be true was in fact true. Then with the facts in hand, she could figure out what in the world she was going to do. Time to go pee on a stick.
***
Lois sat on her sofa ringing her hands. The proof was in. It was definite. She had to tell someone or she would go insane. If she only knew how long Clark was going to be gone. If she knew he would be back at the end of the week or the month, she could probably hang on. It was the not knowing that was killing her.
The longer this went on without Clark, the more questions would be asked. By Perry. By Jimmy. By her mother. They would want to know where Clark was. Why he wasn’t returning from his deep undercover work when she needed him the most? She could only cover for him so much, before everyone would start to turn on him. She could hide the truth for another three, maybe, four months max. If he were gone longer than a year… She shivered. She couldn’t do this alone. She picked up the phone and dialed.
“Hello?” “Martha! Hi.” Lois tried to sound cheery.
“Lois. Hi. Is Clark back?” Lois had sounded too cheery. Mistake. “No, Martha. I’ve got a huge favor to ask.”
“Yes?” Martha sounded concerned.
“Do you think Jonathan could live a weekend without you? I could really use some company.”
“Of course, dear. This must be especially hard on you, keeping the home fires burning by yourself.” “Well, yes. I kind-of had a meltdown at work today. Perry sent me home. I haven’t been sleeping well and if I could have someone to talk about it with…”
“Of course. Of course. Get all those feelings off your chest, dear. Bottling it all up is sure to make you explode.” Lois’s heart filled with warmth. No wonder Clark was such a wonderful man. “I’ll buy you a ticket and have it waiting at the airport. You don’t know how much this means to me, Martha.”
“Anything for you and Clark, dear.” They spoke for a few more minutes before ending the call. Lois called the airlines next and ordered the ticket for Martha. It was nice, this feeling that she was no longer alone. She felt almost like everything was going to be okay. She would tell Martha when she arrived the next day and they would solve her dilemma together.
A knock on the door shook Lois out of her reverie. She looked through the hole in her door and saw a petite man wearing a bowler hat.
Lois opened the door. “H. G. Wells. You’re just the man I need.”
“Good morning, Ms. Lane. May I come in? I have some news for you.”
Lois stepped away from the door. Her prayers had been answered. He would have news of the future. He would be able to tell her when Clark would be back; how long she would have to wait.
H.G. Wells sat down on the sofa and glanced at the newspaper in his hand, before closing it again. “I hate to be forward, Ms. Lane, but could I have a cup of tea?”
“Of course, Mr. Wells.” She ran into the kitchen and put the kettle on. Clark had taught her that a proper cup of tea should never be heated up in the microwave. She searched the cabinet and took down a box of Clark’s favorite tea. Oolong. They had bought it that time Superman had been blinded and stayed at her apartment.
How had she never noticed that both Superman and Clark like the same tea? No matter how long she knew Clark and Superman were the same man, she still was discovering clues that she should have picked up years ago. Some investigative reporter. What was Tempus’s favorite joke? Oh, yeah.
“Duh.” Lois called to him from the kitchen. “Please, don’t tell me that Tempus has escaped, Mr. Wells. I don’t think I could take news like that today. Especially with Clark being gone.”
“No. No, Ms. Lane. It isn’t news about Tempus that I bring.” He sounded distressed.
Lois clung to the rope of hope, but felt like it was about to swing her against a brick wall. “Is everything all right?”
“Let’s have that tea first, shall we?”
Lois made the tea and set it down on the coffee table in the living room.
“Are you not joining me, my dear?”
She shook her head.
“Something hot might just be the ticket.” He took a sip and exhaled into a slight sigh. “You don’t have any ginger tea, do you, Ms. Lane?”
Her brow furrowed.
“Never mind. I hear ginger settles an upset stomach.”
Ah. “You know.”
“Yes, my dear. I’m afraid I do.” He set his hand on the newspaper he had brought with him, but he did not to pick it up.
She could not hold her question in any longer. “When will Clark return, Mr. Wells? I don’t know if I can do this without him. Without knowing. If it had just been me, I think I could wait forever, but now…”
H. G. Wells glanced down at the newspaper, again. “Ms. Lane, the future has changed.”
Lois stood up and started pacing. “It’s those New Kryptonians. I knew there was something untrustworthy about them.”
“No, I’m sorry, Ms. Lane. The future changed because you and Mr. Kent…” He cleared his throat and looked away.
She sat down again. “Mr. Wells, you told me that the future included Superman and me and our children. This shouldn’t change that.”
“Yes, it shouldn’t. The utopian future formed by Superman and his wife and your good deeds, certainly included your children. I cannot explain what happened. Unless it was a matter of timing.”
“Timing?”
“Perhaps.” He cleared his throat again. “Your night together was not supposed to happen at that time. Your first time was to happen later. After…”
Lois got a bad taste in her mouth and her lips pursed. “I don’t need a lecture on morals, please, Mr. Wells. What’s past is past. I cannot change that.”
“Ah.” He smiled. “But I can.”
“You want me to go back in time and stop that night from ever happening?” She looked at him with disbelief.
“If you don’t, Superman will never return.”
The news hit her like a bucket of ice water. “Never?” The water trickled down her spine.
H. G. Wells looked uncomfortable and glanced down at that newspaper, again. “Superman, yes.”
Lois noticed his glance and her curiosity was piqued. He was withholding information. “What about Clark?”
When H. G. Wells glanced at the newspaper, again, Lois swooped in and picked it up. “Ms. Lane, wait!”
Lois opened the paper. The photo on the front page of the
Daily Planet was Clark bent over a grave, drenched in rain. He looked like he had lost his best friend. The headline read
Lois Lane Funeral Held Today . She swallowed as her hands began to shake. Quickly, she scanned the article. Lois Lane and child died due to complications during childbirth. Clark Kent arrived back in town that day, just in time for the funeral. He knew nothing about Lois, her condition or the baby. The article was written by Perry White and she could tell he did not believe Clark’s protestations, “She never said a word.” Even the photo of despondent Clark was taken by Jimmy Olsen.
“No one in Metropolis believes his story. He not only loses you, but all his friends and his job. He returns to Kansas, Ms. Lane, a broken man. He takes over his father’s farm and never leaves Smallville, again. That is a photo of the death of Superman.”
****
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